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Spurgeon 

•P Episodes ***> 




with Pe^Son^l 
1\emin13cence5. 




^NECDOTES 
JlFE. 



SJ, 



CHICAGO: 
W. B. COXKEY COMPANY, Publishers. 



Fii.vxketx Series. Monthly. $6.00 per annum. Vol. 1, No. 1. November, 1893. 
Entered at Chicago Postoffice as second-class matter. 




C. H. SPURGEON 



SPURGEON. 



EPISODES AND ANECDOTES 



OF 



HIS BUSY LIFE. 



WITH PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. 



BY 

THOMAS W. HANDFORD. 
n 



i 9*u m 

20th THOU©/ 



CHICAGO: 

W. B, Conkey Company. 











Copyright. 

BY MORRILL, HIGGINS & CO. 

1892. 

COFIEIGHT 
1893. 

W. B. CON KEY COMPANY. 




PREFATORY NOTE 

This volume is designed to present to American 
readers a general impression of the many-sided 
character and the varied work of the great Preacher 
whom Mr. Gladstone not inaptly described as "the 
last of the Puritans." The compiler of these pages 
was for years a near neighbor to Mr. Spurgeon; he 
has preached in his Tabernacle; lectured to the 
Students of the Pastors' College; and talked to the 
Boys in the Orphanage at Stockwell. His opportu- 
nities of studying Mr. Spurgeon and his work were 
numerous and favorable; his many pleasant mem- 
ories of the great Preacher .afford him special ad- 
vantages for the grateful task of telling America 
what manner of man the Pastor of the Tabernacle 
was. ■-'----' 



Maywood, March 26, 1893. 



WITHOUT PERMISSION 

THIS TRIBUTE TO THE MEMORY 
OF 

CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON 

IS DEDICATED 



WITH SINCERE GRATITUDE 
TO 

ALEXANDL Pv MACLAREN 

OF 
UNION CHAPEL, MANCHESTER, ENGLAND 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I 
EARLY DAYS — STAMBOURNE 

CHAPTER II 

LIFE BEGINS IN EARNEST 

CHAPTER III 
CALL TO LONDON 

CHAPTER IV 
FROM NEW PARK STREET TO THE TABERNACLE 

CHAPTER V 
THE PASTORS' COLLEGE 

CHAPTER VI 
THE STOCKWELL ORPHANAGE 

CHAPTER VII 
FROM MENTONE TO NORWOOD 

CHAPTER VIII 
MRS. SPURGEON 

CHAPTER IX 
EPISODES AND ANECDOTES 



CHAPTER X 
PROVERBIAL PHILOSOPHY — "THE SALT CELLARS*' 

CHAPTER XI 
JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S TALK 

CHAPTER XII 
THE EDITOR AT HIS DESK 

CHAPTER XIII 
THE NEWSPAPER A BIBLE AND A TEXT BOOK 

CHAPTER XIV 
PSALMS AND HYMNS AND SPIRITUAL SONGS 

CHAPTER XV 
ECHOES FROM THE TABERNACLE PULPIT 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Frontispiece, C. H. Spurgeon 

Birthplace of C. H. Spurgeon . . . u 

Metropolitan Tabernacle . . . • 39 

The Dead Pastor Lying in State . . 53 

The Pastors' College 59 

The Stockwell Orphanage .... 75 

Mrs. Spurgeon 89 

Interior of the Tabernacle . . . 151 



SPURGEON; 



CHAPTER I 

EARLY DAYS— STAMBOURNE 

"But I, thy servant, fear the Lord from my youth." 

— Obadiah. 

" Sweet childish days that were as long 
As twenty days are now." 

— William Wordsworth. 

The three names that have stood foremost 
amongst the Baptists of England for a good many 
years past, are Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Alex- 
ander Maclaren, and John Clifford. These names 
have come to stand for so much, they have been 
crowded with such great meanings, through many 
years of consecrated toil, that it seems best to 
record them with unadorned simplicity. To add 
titles of any sort before or after, is mere trifling. 
Such names have earned the right to live and stand 
alone. 

The first of these names is now added to that 
innumerable company of the "blessed" who rest 
from their labors. The name of Charles Haddon 
Spurgeon no longer finds a place amongst the 
records of the living; it has become a legacy and 
an inheritance to the whole Church of Christ to the 

9 



16 SPURGEON 

very end of time. "The world has seemed very 
dull since Hugo died," said an enthusiastic French- 
iman not long ago. There are very many beside 
those who count the Metropolitan Tabernacle their 
religious home, to whom the world will never be 
quite the same since Mr. Spurgeon died. 

One of the happiest descriptions of Mr. Spur- 
geon' s life and work is said to have been given by 
Mr. Gladstone, who was an occasional worshiper 
at the Tabernacle. The statesman's estimate of 
the preacher was thus expressed: "Mr. Spurgeon 
must be regarded as the last of the Puritans." Mr. 
Spurgeon was a Puritan. By descent, in spirit 
and letter, by education and conviction, in speech 
and life, in mind and method, in his study and in 
his pulpit, in his home and on the street, he was a 
Puritan indeed. Who that remembers how the 
young country pastor from Waterbeach took Lon- 
don by storm five-and-thirty years ago, but also 
remembers how he seemed to be, even then, the 
very incarnation of the spirit and genius of the 
seventeenth century. He came as the great Fore- 
runner came, "not a reed to be shaken by the wind, 
but a wind to shake the reeds." He was "a voice 
in the wilderness," the mightiest voice England 
has heard for a hundred years. 

Any estimate of Mr. Spurgeon 's life and work 
must be taken from varied points of view. Great 
as a preacher, laborious and successful as an 
author, sagacious as an organizer, he won for him- 
self a world-wide admiration; but as a philanthro- 



EARLY DAYS I 3 

pist, as the friend of the needy student, of the aged 
and the poor, of fatherless boys and girls, he laid 
hold upon the heart of the world; and there are 
thousands living in many lands to-day, who rise 
up and call him "blessed!" 

The best and briefest analysis of Mr. Spurgeon's 
character was given in a single sentence by Mr. 
Maclaren at one of the memorial services held in 
the Metropolitan Tabernacle. The living preacher, 
speaking of his brother and companion, whose 
coffined form lay at his feet, said: "It was not 
so much his genius, as his earnestness, his devotion, 
his self-oblivion, that endeared him to all hearts; 
and herein lay the secret of his power." To this 
analysis there is nothing to be added. 

One of the texts that came unbidden to mourn- 
ful lips in these sad hours was that familiar word 
of Paul's: "I have fought a good fight. I have 
finished my course. I have kept the faith." Suit- 
able as these words were they were not all inclu- 
sive. There was more of the herald than the 
soldier in the pastor of the Tabernacle. A true 
soldier of the Lord, he was ever ready, when oc- 
casion called, to draw "the sword of the Lord and 
of Gideon;" but we much mistake him if he did 
not love the work of the herald more than that of 
the soldier. The gospel trumpet was dearer to 
him than the sword. Alas! that we have to write: 

" The silver trumpet now is still. " 

Charles Haddon Spurgeon was born at Kelvedon, 
in Essex, on the nineteenth of June, 1834. He 



14 SPURGEON 

came from a long line of preachers, dating back 
to the golden age of Puritanism. The Spurgeons 
seem to have been born for the pulpit. Grand- 
father, father, brother, sons, ail preachers — but 
Charles Haddon the greatest preacher of them all. 
His early days were spent with his grandfather in 
the old parsonage at Stambourne. He seems to 
have lived in the luxury of being grandfather's pet. 

We get from Mr. Spurgeon's pen, in the last 
year of his busy life, a pleasant memory of the old 
Stambourne days: 

"When I was a very small boy," he writes, "I 
was staying at my grandfather's, where I had afore- 
time spent my earliest days; and, as the manner 
was, I read the Scriptures at family prayer. Once 
upon a time, when reading the passage in the Book 
of Revelation which mentions the bottomless pit, 
I paused and said: 'Grandpa, what can this mean?' 
The answer was kind but unsatisfactory: 'Pooh, 
pooh, child, go on. ' The child intended, however, 
to have an explanation, and therefore selected the 
same chapter morning after morning, Sunday in- 
cluded, and always halted at the same verse to 
repeat the inquiry. At length the venerable patri- 
arch capitulated at discretion, by saying, 'Well, 
dear, what is it that puzzles you?' Now, the child 
had often seen baskets with very frail bottoms, 
which, in course of wear, became bottomless, and 
allowed the fruit placed therein to fall upon the 
ground. Here, then, was the puzzle: If the pit 
aforesaid had no bottom, where would all the peo- 



EARLY DAYS I 5 

pie fall who dropped out at its lower end? — a puz- 
zle which rather startled the propriety of family 
worship, and had to be laid aside for explanation 
at a more convenient season. Questions of the 
like simple and natural character would frequently 
break up into paragraphs at the family Bible-read- 
ing, and had there not been a world of love and 
license allowed to the inquisitive reader, he would 
soon have been deposed from his office. As it 
was, the Scriptures were not very badly rendered, 
and were probably quite as interesting as if they 
had not been interspersed with original and curious 
inquiries." 

In recording his recollections of the old meeting- 
house at Stambourne, Mr. Spurgeon says: 

"It was a rare old chapel. I wish it could have 
remained forever as I used to know it; let me see 
if I can sketch it with my pen. 

"The pulpit was glorious as 'the tower of the 
flock.' Over it hung a huge sounding-board; I 
used to speculate as to what would become of 
grandfather if it ever dropped down upon him. I 
thought of my Jack-in-the-box, and hoped that my 
dear grandpapa would never be shut down and 
shut up in such a fashion. At the back of the pul- 
pit was a peg to hold the minister's hat; inside 
there was room for two, for I have sat there with 
grandfather when quite a little boy; but I guess 
that two grown-up people would have found it 
'quite too small enough,' as my Dutch friend puts 
it. 



l6 SPURGEON 

"Just below, and in front of the pulpit, was the 
table-pew, wherein sat the elders of the congrega- 
tion, the men of gracious light and leading. There 
Uncle Haddon generally stood, and gave out the 
hymns and the notices; and from that semi-sacred 
region was raised the block of wood by which, to 
the singers upstairs, the meter of the hymn was 
made known — common, long, or short. There 
were big tombstones forming the bottom of this 
large pew, which took its name from containing 
the table on which were spread the bread and 
wine on days when they had the ordinance — I think 
that was the correct phrase when our good folks 
intended 'the communion.' I don't remember 
hearing them style infant baptism 'the ordinance', 
but I suppose they thought it to be one. A few 
had qualms upon the question, and were baptized 
quietly at some Baptist chapel. 

"The pews in the middle were mostly square ir 
form, and roomy. Those on either side were aris- 
tocratic, and lined with green baize, for the most 
part very faded. In some cases, brass rods car- 
ried up little curtains, which made the family pew 
quite private, and shut out all sights but that of 
the grave and reverend senior who dispensed to us 
the Word of life. There were flaps inside the pew 
so as not to lose the space where the door opened, 
and flaps for the poor to sit upon in the aisle out- 
side of these pews; and when the time came to go 
home, there was such a lifting up and letting down 
of flaps, and flap-seats, within the pew, and with- 



EARLY DAYS I J 

out the pew, as one never does see in these degen- 
erate days. A little boy on a hassock on the floor 
of one of these holy loose-boxes ought to have 
been good; and no doubt was as good there as any- 
where, especially if he had a peppermint to suck, 
and nobody to play with. 

"The aisles were paved with bricks, and were 
generally sanded. Here and there a portion of a 
gravestone indicated how the floor of the old build- 
ing was honeycombed with vaults and graves. 
There was no need to go to the parish church to 
encounter ancient dust. Bacillae and microbes were 
not dreaded in those days. There is no reason to 
believe that in later years any body or bodies were 
buried in the meeting-house; it sufficed to lay the 
departed within the hallowed enclosure of 'the 
meeting-yard. ' It was not absolutely essential 
that those whose souls inherited eternal life should 
leave their bodies beneath the feet of their descend- 
ants for the spread of death on the Lord's-day. 

"On the right-hand side from the pulpit, there 
were two large doors which admitted a wheeled 
carriage into the chapel. There it stood, with its 
shafts turned up out of the way, and the sick per- 
son comfortably housed. I don't remember 
another instance of a person driving into the house 
of God, and continuing to abide in her chariot 
throughout the service. 

"The gallery went along the whole inside front 
of the meeting-house, and turned round a little 
way on each side. It was to me, as a child, an 

2 



1 8 SPURGEON 

elevated, obscure, and unknown region. There 
were men with flutes who let the water run out at 
the ends of the tubes on the people below, and the 
clarionet man, for whom I had more esteem, be- 
cause I could make some sort of noise when 1 
blew through his instrument; but the fifes (why 
not fives?) always baffled me. The bassoon man 
was there, and the serpent, and the double-bass, 
and a lot more of them. They could play. There's 
no mistake about it. At least, it was almost as 
certain as that other undeniable fact, that our 
singers could sing. Well, it was hearty singing; 
and say what you like, it's the heart in the singing 
which is the life of the business. Besides those 
who could sing, we had about twice as many who 
could neither play nor sing; but excelled in sharply 
criticising what was done by others." 

The pilgrim to the early home of Mr. Spurgeon 
will find on the wall on the right-hand side of the 
pulpit in the old meeting-house of Stambourne, a 
marble slab bearing the following record concerning 
Mr. Spurgeon's grandfather: 

IN MEMORY OF 

The Rev. JAMES SPURGEON, 

Who for fifty-four years was the faithful and beloved 
pastor of the church in this place, and 
for four years previously of the Inde- 
pendent church at Clare. 

He departed this life on the twelfth day of Feb- 
ruary, 1864, in the 88th year of his age. 



CHAPTER II 

LIFE BEGINS IN EARNEST — WATERBEACH 

"Life's but a means unto an end; 
Beginning, means, and end of all things — God!" 

— Philip James Bailey. 

"But I certify you, brethren, that the Gospel which was preached 
of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither 
was I taught it; but by the revelation of Jesus Christ." — Paul. 

It was not to be expected that this young Puri- 
tan would journey far along the path of life with- 
out encountering marked religious experiences. 
There are many lives after the type of "Lydia the 
seller of purple from Thyatira," whose heart "the 
Lord opened," gently, leaf by leaf, as the sun 
awakens a rose. Mr. Spurgeon was not of this 
order. He could mark the day and the hour when 
he surrendered to the call of God. And he did 
mark it as the great red-letter day of his life. 

But Mr. Spurgeon himself shall tell the story of 
his conversion. Addressing his students, he says: 

"I will tell you how I myself was brought to a 
knowledge of the truth. It pleased God in my 
childhood to convince me of sin. I was miserable, 
my heart was broken in pieces. I resolved that, 
in the town where I lived, I would visit every place 
of worship in order to find out the way of salva- 
tion. I went to all the places of worship. But I 

19 



20 SPURGEON 

did not hear the gospel. The ministers preached 
truth, great truths, many good truths that were 
fitting to many of their congregation — but what I 
wanted to know was — how can I get my sins for- 
given ? and they never told me that. 

"I went time after time, and I can honestly say, 
I don't know that I ever went without prayer to 
God, and I am sure there was not a more attentive 
hearer in all the place than myself, for I panted 
and longed to understand how I might be saved. 

"At last, one snowy day — it snowed so much I 
could not go to the place I had determined to go 
to, and I was obliged to stop on the road, and it 
was a blessed stop to me — I found rather an obscure 
street, and turned down a court, and there was a 
little chapel. I wanted to go somewhere, but I 
did not know this place. It was the Primitive 
Methodists' chapel. I had heard of these people 
from many, and how they sang so loudly that they 
made people's heads ache; but that did not mat- 
ter. I wanted to know how I might be saved, and 
if they made my head ache ever so much I did not 
care. So, sitting down, the service went on, but 
no minister came. At last a very thin-looking 
man came into the pulpit and opened his Bible and 
read these words: 'Look unto me, and be ye 
saved, all the ends of the earth. ' Just setting his 
eyes upon me, as if he knew me all by heart, he 
said: 'Young man, you are in trouble.' Well, I 
was, sure enough. Says he, 'You will never get 
out of it unless you look to Christ. ' And then, 



LIFE BEGINS IN EARNEST 21 

lifting up his hands, he cried out, as only, I think, 
a Primitive Methodist could do, 'Look, look, look! 
It is only look!' said he. I saw at once the way 
of salvation. Oh, how I did leap for joy at that 
moment! I know not what else he said; I did not 
take much notice of it — I was so possessed with 
that one thought. Like as when the brazen ser- 
pent was lifted up, they only looked and were 
healed. I had been waiting to do fifty things, but 
when I heard this word 'Look!' what a charming 
word it seemed to me. Oh, I looked till I could 
almost have looked my eyes away! And in heaven 
I will look on still with joy unutterable." 

Work followed conversion. To what end had 
he been converted if not for work ? Praying, exhort- 
ing, was soon followed by preaching. His first 
message was delivered in a cottage. He shrank 
from the task at first. But courage came at last. 
He says: 

"I felt that I was fairly committed to do my 
best. I walked along quietly, lifting up my soul 
to God, and it seemed to me that I could surely 
tell a few poor cottagers of the sweetness and love 
of Jesus, for I felt them in my own soul. Praying 
for divine help, I resolved to make an attempt. 
My text should be, 'Unto you, therefore, which 
believe, He is precious, ' and I would trust the 
Lord to open my mouth in honor of His dear Son. 
It seemed a great risk and a serious trial; but, 
depending upon the power of the Holy Ghost, I 
would at least tell out the story of the cross, and 



22 SPURGEON 

not allow the people to go home without a word. 
We entered the low-pitched room of the thatched 
cottage, where a few simple-minded farm-laborers 
and their wives were gathered together; we sang 
and prayed and read the Scriptures, and then came 
our first sermon. How long or how short it was 
we cannot now remember. It was not half such a 
task as we had feared it wouid be, but we were 
glad to see our way to a fair conclusion, and to the 
giving out of the last hymn. To our own delight 
ive had not broken down, nor stopped short in the 
middle, nor been destitute of ideas, and the desired 
haven was in view. We made a finish, and took 
up the book; but to our astonishment, an aged voice 
cried out: 'Bless your dear heart, how old are you?' 
Our very solemn reply was, 'You must wait till the 
service is over before making any such inquiries. 
Let us now sing. ' We did sing, and the ycung 
preacher pronounced the benediction, and then 
began a dialogue which enlarged into a warm, 
friendly talk, in which everybody appeared to take 
part. 'How old are you?' was the leading ques- 
tion. 'I am under sixty, ' was the reply. 'Yes, 
and under sixteen, ' was the old lady's rejoinder. 
'Never mind my age, think of the Lord Jesus and 
His preciousness, ' was all that I could say, after 
promising to come again if the gentlemen at Cam- 
bridge thought me fit to do so. Very great and 
profound was our awe of those 'gentlemen at Cam- 
bridge' in those days." 

His first pastorate was at Waterbeach near Cam- 



LIFE BEGINS IN EARNEST 23 

bridge. The church was small, composed for the 
most part of aged members. But the history of 
that brief pastorate has always been regarded by 
Mr. Spurgeon as one of the greenest spots in all 
his busy life. 

A great deal of interest has been taken in the 
fact that Mr. Spurgeon never went to college. But 
he very narrowly escaped. In referring to this 
half-amusing episode in his early history, he says: 

"Soon after I had begun, in 1852, to preach the 
Word in Waterbeach, I was strongly advised by 
my father and others to enter Stepney, now 
Regent's Park College, to prepare more fully for 
the ministry. Dr. Angus, the tutor of the college, 
visited Cambridge, where I then resided, and it 
was arranged that we should meet at the house of 
Mr. Macmillan, the publisher. Thinking and pray- 
ing over the matter, I entered the house at exactly 
the time appointed, and was shown into a room 
where I waited patiently for a couple of hours, 
feeling too much impressed with my own insignifi- 
cance, and the greatness of the London tutor, to 
venture to ring the bell and inquire the cause of 
the unreasonably long delay. 

"At last, patience having had her perfect work, 
the bell was set in motion, and on the arrival of 
the servant, the waiting young man of eighteen 
was informed that the doctor had tarried in another 
room, and could stay no longer, so had gone off 
by train to London. The stupid girl had given no 
information to the family that anyone called and 



24 SPURGEON 

had been shown into the drawing-room, conse- 
quently the meeting never came about, although 
designed by both parties. I was not a little disap- 
pointed at the moment, but have a thousand times 
since then thanked the Lord very heartily for the 
strange providence which forced my steps into 
another and fax better path." 



CHAPTER III 



CALL TO LONDON 



"If Thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence." 

— -Moses. 

"Then said I, Ah, Lord God! Behold, I cannot speak, for I am 
but a child. But the Lord said unto me: Say not, I am a child, for 
thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I shall 
command thee thou shalt speak." — Jeremiah. 

"All things come to those who wait." But the 
young pastor of Waterbeach was happy in his 
work, happy with his little flock, and there are no 
indications that he was waiting for a call, or ambi- 
tious for a larger sphere. He kept the little vine- 
yard amid the hills faithfully. He tended the 
vines, and guarded them night and day. He ruled 
the little kingdom wisely and well, and without 
seeking or desire he was called to the great Baby- 
lon on the banks of the Thames. 

The Baptist church worshiping in New Park 
Street Chapel, dated back to the days of Cromwell 
and the Commonwealth. During its history it had 
rejoiced in learned and distinguished men for pas- 
tors. Dr. Gill, of Commentary fame; Dr. Reach, 
of the Metaphors; Dr. Rippon, the young poet of 
the church; Dr. Angus, James Smith, and William 
Walters, had in succession presided over the church. 
The church was nearly dead. A chapel that would 

25 



26 SPURGEON 

hold twelve hundred people, if they would but 
come, witnessed a congregation of perhaps two 
hundred, with room for a thousand more. Mr. 
Spurgeon was invited, in the winter of 1853, to sup- 
ply the pulpit "with a view." He came with much 
fear and trembling, and twenty-five years after- 
ward, he tells the story of that visit: 

"Twenty-five years ago — and yet it seems but 
yesterday — we lodged for the night at a boarding- 
house in Queen Square, Bloomsbury, to which the 
worthy deacon directed us. As we wore a huge 
black satin stock, and used a blue handkerchief 
with white spots, the young gentlemen of that 
boarding-house marveled greatly at the youth 
from the country who had come up to preach in 
London, but who was evidently in the condition 
known as verdant green. They were mainly of the 
evangelical church persuasion, and seemed greatly 
tickled that the country lad should be a preacher. 
They did not propose to go and hear the youth, 
but they seemed to tacitly agree to encourage him 
after their own fashion, and we were encouraged 
accordingly. What tales were narrated of the 
great divines of the metropolis and their congrega- 
tions! One, we remember, had a thousand city 
men to hear him, another had his church filled 
with thoughtful people, such as could hardly be 
matched all over England, while a third had an 
immense audience, almost entirely composed of 
the young men of London, who were spell-bound 
by his eloquence. The study which these men 



CALL TO LONDON 2J 

underwent in composing their sermons, their her- 
culean toils in keeping up their congregations, and 
the matchless oratory which they exhibited on .all 
occasions, were duly rehearsed in our hearing; and 
when we were shown to bed in a cupboard over 
the front door, we were not in an advantageous 
condition for pleasant dreams. Park Street hos- 
pitality never sent the young minister to that far- 
away hired room again; but assuredly the Satur- 
day evening in a London boarding-house was about 
the most depressing agency which could have been 
brought to bear upon our spirit. On the narrow 
bed we tossed in solitary misery, and found no pity. 
Pitiless was the grind of the cabs in the street; 
pitiless the recollection of the young city clerks 
whose grim propriety had gazed upon our rusticity 
with such amusement; pitiless the spare room, 
which scarce afforded space to kneel; pitiless even 
the gas-lamps which seemed to wink at us as they 
flickered amid the December darkness. We had 
no friend in all that city full of human beings, but 
we felt among strangers and foreigners, hoped to 
be helped through the scrape into which we had 
been brought, and to escape safely to the serene 
abodes of Cambridge and Waterbeach, which then 
seemed to be Eden itself. 

"Twenty-five years ago it was a clear, cold 
morning, and we wended our way along Holborn 
Hill toward Blackfriars and certain tortuous lanes 
and alleys at the foot of Southwark Bridge. Won- 
dering, praying, fearing, hoping, believing — we felt 



28 SPURGEON 

all alone and yet not alone. Expectant of divine 
help and inwardly borne down by our sense of the 
need of it, we traversed a dreary wilderness :: 
brick to find the spot where our message must 
needs be delivered. One word rose to our lip 
many times, we scarce know why — 'He must needs 
go through Samaria. ' The necessity of our Lord's 
journeying in a certain direction is no doubt re- 
peated in His servants, and as our present journey 
was not of our seeking, and had been by no mea::s 
pleasing so far as it had gone — the one thought of 
a 'needs be' for it seemed to overtop even' oth-:~ 
At sight of Park Street Chapel we felt-for a moment 
amazed at cur own temerity, for it seemed to our 
eyes to be a large, ornate and imposing structure, 
suggesting an audience wealthy and critical, and 
far removed from the humble folk to whom our 
ministry had been swee:::;55 and light. It was 
early, so there were no persons entering, and when 
the set time was fully come, there were no signs to 
support the suggestion raised by the exterior of the 
building, and we felt that by God's help we were 
not yet out of our depth, and were not likely to be 
with so small an audience. The Lord helped as 
very graciously; we had a happy Sabbath in the 
pulpit, and spent the intervals with warm-hearted 
friends; and when at night wetnidged back to the 
Queen Square narrow lodging we were not alone, 
and we no longer looked on Londoners as flinty- 
hearted barbarians. Our tone was altered; we 
wanted no pity of anyone; we did not care a 



CALL TO LONDON 29 

penny for the young gentlemen lodgers and their 
miraculous ministers, nor for the grind of the cabs, 
nor for anything else under the sun. The lion had 
been looked at all round, and his majesty did not 
appear to be a tenth as majestic as when we had 
only heard his roar miles away." 

After much care and prayer, a call was present- 
ed. Mr. Spurgeon was in no haste to accept. But 
the early spring of 1854 saw him settled in London. 
At this point, we present our readers with a copy 
of Mr. Spurgeon's letter of acceptance of the call 
to the church at New Park Street. When we 
remember that the young pastor was not more 
than twenty years of age when he wrote this letter, 
who can help saying: "How much older art thou 
than thy years!" The modesty and the courage of 
the letter are alike charming. The letter runs 
thus: 

"75, Dover Road, Borough, 
"April 28, 1854. 
"To the Baptist church of Christ, worshiping in 

New Park Street Chapel, Southwark. 
"Dearly Beloved in Christ Jesus: — 

"I have received your unanimous invitation, as 
contained in a resolution passed by you on the nine- 
teenth instant, desiring me to accept the pastor- 
ate among you. No lengthened reply is required; 
there is but one answer to so loving and cordial an 
invitation. I accept it. I have not been perplexed 
as to what my reply shall be, for many things con- 
strain me thus to answer. 



30 SPURGEON 

"I sought not to come to you, for I was the min- 
ister of an obscure but affectionate people; I never 
solicited advancement. The first note of invita- 
tion from your deacons came to me quite unlooked 
for, and I trembled at the idea of preaching in 
London. I could not understand how it came 
about, and even now I am filled with astonish- 
ment at the wondrous providence. I would wish 
to give myself into the hands of our covenant God, 
whose wisdom directs all things. He shall choose 
for me; and so far as I can judge this is His choice. 

"I feel it to be a high honor to be the pastor of 
a people who can mention glorious names as my 
predecessors; and I entreat of you to remember 
me in prayer, that I may realize the solemn respon- 
sibility of my trust. Remember my youth and 
inexperience; pray that these may not hinder my 
usefulness. I trust, also, that the remembrance 
of these may lead you to forgive the mistakes I 
may make, or unguarded words I may utter. 

"Blessed be the name of the Most High! If He 
has called me to this office He will support me in 
it; otherwise, how should a child, a youth, have 
the presumption thus to attempt a work which 
filled the heart and hands of Jesus ? Your kind- 
ness to me has been very great, and my heart is 
knit unto you. I fear not your steadfastness; 1 
fear my own. The gospel, I believe, enables me 
to venture great things, and by faith I venture 
this. I ask your co-operation in every good work 
— in visiting the sick, in bringing in inquirers, and 
in mutual edification. 



CALL TO LONDON 3! 

"Oh, that I may be no injury to you, but a 
lasting benefit! I have no more to say, only this: 
that if I have expressed myself in these few words 
in a manner unbecoming my youth and inexperi- 
ence, you will not impute it to arrogance, but for- 
give my mistake. 

"And now, commending you to oi^r covenant- 
keeping God, the triune Jehovah, I sm yours to 
serve in the gospel, 

"C. H. Spurgeon." 



CHAPTER IV 

FROM NEW PARK STREET TO THE TABERNACLE 

"And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to 
a city of habitation. " — David. 

"We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths; 
In feelings, not in figures on a dial. 

He lives most 
Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best." 

— Philip James Bailey. 

Mr. Spurgeon's first sermon in London was 
from the text, "Every good and perfect gift cometh 
from above, from the Father of lights, with whom 
there is no variableness nor the least shadow of 
a turning." The very text seemed to be a good 
omen in itself, at least so thought the deacons of 
New Park Street. The old chapel was soon 
crowded. Scores, then hundreds, had to be turned 
away from every service. The young preacher 
became the sensation of the hour, but he soon 
ceased to be a sensation, and grew to be a power 
amongst men. New Park Street was closed for 
repairs and enlargement; and the daring young 
preacher took Exeter Hall, which was then to Lon- 
don what the Auditorium is to Chicago, and would 
hold nearly as many. The deacons were amazed 
at his daring, but they did not yet understand to 
what an extent his courage was fed on faith. 

Exeter Hall was soon as crowded as New Part 
32 



TO THE TABERNACLE 33 

Street had been. The Strand was thronged; its old 
order of Sunday quiet was invaded. The tide had 
set in, and with its flow there came the wildest 
storm of abuse and persecution that ever assailed 
an unoffending youth. The press, and, to its shame 
be it said, the so-called "religious press," bitterly 
denounced Mr. Spurgeon, and seemed bent on crush- 
ing him. The hardest names were hurled at him. 
"Mountebank," "charlatan," "fanatic," "blas- 
phemer," "ignorant," "Punch in the pulpit," these 
and similar epithets were freely bestowed upon 
him. The prophets who prophesied without the 
gift of prophecy, knew, of course, that this thing 
could not last. He was a "will-o'-the-wisp," "a 
Hash in the pan," it would all end soon! But Mr 
Spurgeon had come to stay. And to hear him talk 
of those times, to see the smile on his face as he 
assured you that God was overruling these darts 
of the Evil One for his own glory, was most enjoy- 
able. He could laugh at it all, looking back, but 
it was no laughing matter then. It would have 
upset a weak man. It would have broken the 
heart of a coward. Back to New Park Street and 
then back again to Exeter Hall, and all the while 
the tide kept rolling in. The press carried the 
message of this strange young preacher all over the 
land. On the seventh of October, 1857, the Indian 
mutiny startled the British nation, the horrors of 
Cawnpore shocked and humiliated England. A 
fast-day was appointed, and on that day Mr. Spur- 
geon preached in the Crystal Palace at Sydenham 



34 SPURGEON 

to 24,000 people. The rich, full, mellow voice oi 
the young preacher was heard to the utmost verge 
of the crowd. His text was, "Hear ye rod, and who 
hath appointed it." There were no words of com- 
fort for the Government in that sermon. He im- 
peached their treatment of India, and reminded 
them that only righteousness could exalt a nation. 

In the following year Mr. Spurgeon took the 
great Surrey Music Hall, a place capable of hold- 
ing 10,000 persons. Here occurred on the nine- 
teenth of October, 1858, the fatal disaster of death 
to eight persons and severe wounding to sixteen 
others, as the result of a false alarm of fire. For 
years Mr. Spurgeon felt the shock of that terrible 
disaster. He never forgot it ; it was to the very 
last a most painful memory. 

The project of building the Metropolitan Taber- 
nacle was now launched. Mr. Spurgeon deter- 
mined on a large, simple building, that should be 
opened free of debt. He went all over England 
preaching, receiving half of such collections as were 
made for his Tabernacle; by this means he was a 
blessing to hundreds of struggling churches, and 
his preaching was attended with the surest tokens 
of the divine favor. Men were redeemed from sin, 
and sluggards in the churches were awakened as 
men awakened from the dead. So the tide rolled 
in! Mr. Spurgeon preached, on an average, twelve 
times a week. What shall we say of that preach- 
ing? To those who ever heard him, description 
is needless; to those who never heard him, descrip- 



Tb THE TABERNACLE 3$ 

tion is useless. One wonderful sermon looms up 
from the past. It was preached in the pulpit of 
the late Hugh Stowell Brown, of Myrtle Street, 
Liverpool. The occasion was one of the annual 
gatherings of the Baptist Union. The text was 
from one of John's brief epistles, written to a 
friend who was evidently poor in purse, and feeble 
in health. It runs thus: "Beloved, I wish that 
thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy 
soul prospereth." The point of the sermon was 
"spiritual health." In his own inimitable way 
the preacher ran the analogy of the spiritual and 
physical to a marvelous conclusion. "What John 
meant," he said, "what he earnestly prayed for, 
was that his friend might be as rich in material 
things, and as healthy in body, as he was rich in 
spiritual things." Then, with a sudden turn, he 
appealed to his audience and asked them what 
their condition would be if their physical condition 
was the exact counterpart of their spiritual state; 
and, turning first to one point of the assembly and 
then to another, he said: "You would be blind, 
for the god of this world hath blinded your spirit- 
ual vision; and you would be deaf, for God calls 
and you will not hear; many of you would be 
paralytics, some would have withered arms, some 
would have palsy" — and then, pausing a moment, he 
lifted his hands and, in a very agony of spirit, he 
cried aloud — "And many of you, God only knows 
how many, but, alas! many of you would fall 
down dead in your pews, for you are dead in tres- 



36 SPURGEON 

passes and sin!" The silence that followed was 
painful; it seemed as if the church was instantly 
changed into a charnel-house. The congregation 
seemed horror-struck. It was some time before 
Mr. Spurgeon himself was able to overmaster the 
deep emotion that possessed him. At last he 
rallied, and then, with a glad voice, he cried out: 
"But it is aot too late! There is life! Life! Life!) 
Life!!! 

" 'Life for a look at the crucified One.' " 

The sermon ended. Scarcely anyone joined in 
the singing. The impression was simply awful. 
This was an exception. Eight out of ten of all 
Mr. Spurgeon 's sermons were as bright as a morn- 
ing in June, and as hopeful as the budding spring- 
time. Twelve hundred and fifty of his sermons 
have been published. They have been translated 
into all civilized languages. Millions of copies 
have been sold and given away. In Australia an 
admirer of Mr. Spurgeon paid for the publication 
of a sermon of Mr. Spurgeon's in the weekly paper. 
The sermon was published and paid for as an 
advertisement. 

The building of the Tabernacle was a colossal 
undertaking. Any man less bold and confident 
would have utterly failed in such an enterprise. 
But Mr. Spurgeon had no doubt nor misgiving. 
It was the Lord's work, he said, and he would 
carry it through. Money came in marvelous ways, 
and from all sorts of strange sources. Mr. Spur- 
geon relates an incident of this period that is per- 
fectly romantic. He says; 



TO THE TABERNACLE 2>7 

"When we came to the undertaking of respon- 
sibilities, there was a natural shrinking on the part 
of the committee with which we started. No one 
could be blamed; it was a great risk, and, person- 
ally, I did not wish anyone to undertake it. I was 
quite prepared for any risk, but then I had no 
money of my own, and so was a man of straw. I 
say there was a measure of fear and trembling, 
but I had none. I was as sure of the matter as. 
possible, and reckoned on paying all the cost. 
This quiet assurance, however, had a foundation 
which reflects credit on one who has for some 
years gone to his reward. When I was riding 
with a friend to preach in the country, a gentle- 
man overtook us and asked me if I would get out 
of the trap and ride with him in the gig, as h& 
wanted to speak to me. I did so. He said, 'You 
have got to build that big place.' I said, 'Yes.' 
He said, 'You will find that many friends will fee! 
nervous over it. Now as a business man I am sure 
you will succeed, and besides that, God is with the 
work and it cannot fail. I want you never to feel 
nervous or downcast about it. ' I told him that it 
was a great work, and that I hoped the Lord would 
enable me to carry it through. 

" 'What do you think, ' said he, 'will be required, 
at the outside, to carry it through?' 

"I said, '£20,000 must do it in addition to what 
we have.' 

"'Then,' he said, Twill let you have the £20,000 
on the condition that you shall only keep what 



38 SPURGEON 

you need of it to finish the building. Mark, ' said 
he, T do not expect to give more than ^50, but 
you shall have bonds and leases to the full value 
of ^"20,000 to fall back upon.' This was royal. 
I told no one, but the ease of mind this act gave 
me was of the utmost value. I had quite as much 
need of faith, for I resolved that none of my 
friend's money should be touched; but I had no 
excuse for fear. God was very good to me, but 
by this act I was recalled from all personal boast- 
ing. My friend gave his ^50 and no more, and I 
felt deeply thankful to him for the help which he 
would have rendered had it been required." 

At last, amid boundless rejoicing, the great Taber- 
nacle, capable of holding from 6,000 to 7,000 peo- 
ple, was opened on the twenty-fifth of March, 1861. 
It cost $137,078.55, and every cent was paid before 
the first hallelujah was sung. For thirty years Mr. 
Spurgeon preached in that Tabernacle twice a Sab- 
bath; a record almost unequaled in the history of 
the modern ministry, if any estimate is taken of the 
hundreds of thousands of men and women to whom 
he must have preached. And yet the people never 
tired of "the old, old story;" nor did the preacher 
grow weary of the telling. 

At the opening of the Tabernacle Mr. Spurgeon's 
father made the following remarks: 

"I always thought my son did wrong in coming 
to London; now you see that I was wrong. I 
always thought he was wrong in not going to col- 
lege. I tried three or four times with him, one 



TO THE TABERNACLE 4 I 

night with a dear friend that loved him, but it was 
no use; he said, 'No, I will never go to college, 
only in strict obedience to you as a father. ' There 
I left the matter; and I see that God has been 
with him, though I thought it was a wrong step in 
him to go to London. And I thought it was a 
wrong step for me to come here to-night; but per- 
haps I may be mistaken again. I can tell you it 
is one of the happiest days of my life. I feel 
beyond myself when I think of the kindness which 
has been shown to him when bat a youth. I ascribe 
it all to God's goodness and the earnest prayers of 
his people. He has been exposed to temptation 
from every source, and even now, my friends, he 
is not free from it. You have prayed for him, and 
God has sustained him. Oh! let me entreat you 
to continue your prayers. Everyone here to-night, 
go home and pray for your pastor. A meeting likfc 
this is enough to carry a man beyond himself and 
fill his heart with pride; but the grace of God is 
all-sufficient." 

On the fifth of May, 1879, Mr. Spurgeon cele- 
brated his silver wedding. His friends, who had 
again and again endeavored in vain to press upon 
him some substantial token of their regard, insisted 
that this happy occasion was just the time when 
they might most appropriately express their love 
for their pastor and his wife. Accordingly, on the 
bright May-day of 1879, they presented him with 
the magnificent sum of $31,244.42. Every penny 
of this money was devoted to benevolent objects 



42 SPURGECtf 

in connection with his Tabernacle work. Twenty- 
five thousand dollars were devoted to the endow- 
ment of the Tabernacle almshouses. 

The generosity of Mr. Spurgeon was proverbial. 
If he had chosen, he might have been a millionaire; 
but a millionaire preacher seemed to him to be a 
strange anomaly. He was able to live with great 
comfort on the profits of his books ; and it is stated, 
on good authority, that Mr. Spurgeon for many 
years gave away every penny he received from the 
Tabernacle to benevolent purposes. 

The very last message he sent from his death- 
bed at Mentone inclosed $500 as a contribution to 
the general funds of the Tabernacle. 

A pleasant memory of one of Mr. Spurgeon's 
red-letter days demands a moment's thought. It 
was the nineteenth of June, 1884. If one had 
been crossing London bridge early on that bright 
summer morning, he would have fancied that 
that ancient thoroughfare was more than usually 
crowded. The tide of traffic was bent southward, 
and if one had followed the crowds he would soon 
have found himself at "the Elephant and Castle," 
and a little further on would have noticed the 
streams of people from Old Kent road and West- 
minister and from every quarter pressing their way 
to Mr. Spurgeon's Tabernacle. The occasion was 
the celebration of Mr. Spurgeon's jubilee birthday. 

It was a grand occasion, an occasion of which 
any man might be proud. There, in the fullness 
of his prime, stood a man, who, by a life of simple 



TO THE TABERNACLE 43 

devotion to the cause of God and to the good of 
his fellowmen, had won for himself such a place in 
the hearts of all who knew him as to make one 
feel that the platform of the Tabernacle that sum- 
mer day was more to be envied than the throne 
of a king. 

Seven thousand people crowded into the spacious 
house of prayer to offer the pastor their congratu- 
lations, and they were but representative of seventy 
times 7,000 more all over the Christian world, who 
could not be present in person, though they were 
tiiere in heart and sympathy. 

Members of all religious communities were there; 
fews and Greeks, dwellers from all nations under 
heaven, not forgetting America. The whole world 
came together to say "God bless you" to this 
simple-minded man, who made no other claim to 
this kindly greeting than that he had spent his 
days in "preaching Christ and Him crucified." 

All this time he was busy with his pen prepar- 
ing and compiling books that will live for genera- 
tions. Including the weekly sermon, and his many 
articles in "The Sword and Trowel," Mr. Spur- 
geon's printed works have probably been more 
voluminous than the productions of any modern 
author. The weekly sermon, beginning with the 
first week of 1855, has completed thirty-six yearly 
volumes. The average circulation has been main- 
tained at 25,000 weekly. The monthly magazine 
has also completed twenty-six yearly volvmes. Of 
the "Treasury of David," in seven 8vo. volumes, 



something like 130,000 volumes have been sold. 

Of "Lectures :: :::y Sz~i±zzs" az: • , Ccu::::en:in£ 
an: C:u::auen:aries : ::" -:: -:': ::: anal ~z.zco 
volumes have been disposed of. Then "John 
Ploughman 5 7 a Ik and Pictures" together show a 
circulation of half a million volumes. The other 
w;rk= are very numercus. all being autre :: less 
p tun. an. 

Mr. Syurgetn was greatly £--n:ycu stnae years 
ago by hints :hn: were uaaae pretty freely :: the 
effect :ha: he v.- = 5 inter:: :n establishing a ne " 
:en:n:ina:i:n rearing his :wu nan:e. Haw he 
viewed this n:a::er :he :: 11 awing- wires "•* : 1 1 shew: 

"Titer: 15 n: -viral in tne wzrla s: huaeful to 
:ur hear: as :ha: warel Saurave: msn: ana n: 
t h : d g 1: : : u r t her I r : m : : r s :» ul than that of f orm- 
ing a new se:t. Onr c:nrse has been, ana w: 
h::e ever will be. an inaenenaen: tne: but t: 
charge us with separating fr:m the general trgan- 
ization of the rehgitus world, ana even of the 
Baptist denomination, is to perpetrate an un- 
founded libel. We preach no new gospel, we de- 
sire no new objects, and follow them in no n: we 
spirit. We love Christ better than a sect, and 
truth better than a party, and so far are not denom- 
inational; but we are in open union with the Baa - 
fists fa: the very reastn :ha: we :ann:t enanre 
isilatim He "it: searthes all hear:s knt'-vs that 
::r aim ana reject is n:: :: ga:her a banal arcane: 
self bat t: unite a ctntnany areuna :he Savier. 
'Let my name perish, but let Christ's name last for- 



TO THE TABERNACLE 45 

ever,' said George Whitefield; and so has Charles 
Spurgeon said a hundred times. We aid and assist 
the Baptist churches to the full extent of our pow- 
er, although we do not restrict our energies to them 
alone, and in this those churches are far enough 
from blaming us. Our joy and rejoicing is great 
in the fellowship of all believers, and the forming 
of a fresh sect is work which we leave to the devil, 
whom it befits far more than ourselves. It is true 
that it has long been in our power to commence a 
new denomination, but it is not true that it has 
ever been contemplated by us or our friends. We 
desire as much as possible to work with the exist- 
ing agencies, and when we commence new ones 
our friends must believe that it is with no idea of 
organizing a fresh community." 

Whether a member of the Peace Society or not 
Mr. Spurgeon was a strong advocate of the prin- 
ciples of peace. The following vigorous passage 
is found in an address he issued to the electors of 
Southwark in the midst of a general election con- 
test. He said: "Great questions are involved in 
the struggle; never were weightier matters before 
the nation. * * * Are we to go on invading and 
slaughtering in order to obtain a scientific frontier 
and feeble neighbors ? How many wars may we 
reckon on between now and 1886? What quan- 
tity of killing will be done in that time, and how 
many of our weaker neighbors will have their 
houses burned and their fields ravaged by this 
Christian nation?" 



46 SPURGEON 

Paxton Hood, who is no mean authority upon 
pulpit eloquence, thus speaks of what we have 
always regarded as one of the wonderful gifts of the 
orator — his voice: — "Once heard it can never be 
forgotten; its sweetness, its perfect submission to 
the will of the speaker, its range, and a somewhat 
that is peculiar to loving and gracious souls, linger 
in the heart with an undying charm and force. 
. . . There can be no doubt that perhaps first, 
and before all things, the voice counts for much — 
a voice of astonishing compass — a voice the waves 
from which roll with astonishing ease over the im- 
mense company, full, sweet, and clear — clear and 
ringing as a bell; a voice like the man and the mat- 
ter — independent of most nervous impressions and 
all nervous agitations. It is a clarion of a voice. 
Other voices of orators have pierced us more — 
have possessed more accent — have been able to 
whisper better; but we never knew nor conceived 
a voice with such thunderous faculty. I have called 
it a trumpet, and, better still, a bell: it is not a 
perfect peal, but its tones roll on — there is no ex- 
haustion; the tones are not many, but they are 
full and sweeping, and they give the idea of a great, 
fully-informed, and immensely capacious will and 
nature. Mr. Spurgeon might possess many of his 
mental attributes, but manifestly this power of be- 
ing easily heard, of always striking the right pitch, 
so that he compasses immense assemblies, is one 
great element of success in holding the attention 
of masses of people. It is an old idea, and a very 



TO THE TABERNACLE 47 

true one, we believe, that the voice is the man; as 
the voice is, so the soul; a full voice is a full nat- 
ure. The last achievement of Mr. Spurgeon (in 
1867) will be regarded by many as the most won- 
derful of all in his early but extraordinary career. 
Whatever the capacities of the Agricultural Hall 
of Islington may be, and its minimum of 12,000, 
or its maximum of 20,000 auditors, unquestionably 
the Church notes in its history very few instances 
of preachers able to attract and to hold in atten- 
tion so mighty a mass. True, audiences grow like 
avalanches, and, as force grows, the means of sus- 
taining force also grow. But the greatest of the 
preachers the Church has known, such as Chry- 
sostom, Augustine, Hall, Chalmers, or Irving, how- 
ever the passion of their accents might have been 
desired, and the majesty or music of their elo- 
quence, would have found themselves as foiled by 
their own voice as a silver bell on the mast of a 
vessel in the roar of a storm, in immense masses." 
The reader will not be surprised to learn that 
Mr. Spurgeon's study Bible was completely worn 
out. All those who have made good use of their 
Bibles know that the more a Bible is used the 
more valuable it becomes. Mr. Spurgeon had the 
old study Bible, that was interlined and thumb- 
marked and filled with marginal notes, re-bound. 
On the fly-leaf of the Bible are these significant 
lines: 



48 SPURGEON 

"C. H. Spurgeon, 1856." 
"The lamp of my study." 
"The light is bright as ever! 1861." 
"Oh, that mine eyes were more opened! 1864." 
"Being worn to pieces, re-bound 1870. The lan- 
tern mended, and the light as joyous 
to mine eyes as ever!" 



CHAPTER V 

FROM MENTONE TO NORWOOD: THE LAST OF EARTI* 

"The Master's approval is the servant's best wages." 

— Alexander Maclaren. 

"Servant of God, well done! 
Rest from thy loved employ; 
The battle's fought, the victory's won — ■ 
Enter thy Master's joy." 

— James Montgotnery. 

The death of Charles Haddon Spurgeon, which 
occurred at Mentone on Sunday evening, January 
31, 1892, occasioned unfeigned regret throughout 
the whole Christian world. He had been a sufferer 
for many years, and the fact that he wrought so 
bravely, in season and out of season, in suffering 
and weakness and exceeding pain, is to his lasting 
renown. All through the summer of 1891 the sad- 
dest fears were entertained, but with the Christ- 
mas season and the dawn of the new year there 
came hope that was destined to be suddenly and 
rudely blighted. 

The funeral of Mr. Spurgeon began at Mentone, 
in the south of France — whither he had gone, year 
after year, in search of rest and health — it ended at 
Norwood; and not often in the history of the world 
have so many followed a devout man to his burial, 
"making lamentation over him." 

The week-long program of the arrangements for 
49 



50 SPURGEON 

the burial of Mr. Spurgeon began at Mentone, at 
noon, Thursday, February 4th. A very simple 
service was held in the Scotch Presbyterian Church, 
which, a year ago, was opened with a sermon 
preached by Mr. Spurgeon himself. The coffin was 
placed in front of the rostrum. Round it were 
grouped a few wreaths, and at the head were two tall 
palm branches crossed, symbolic of the faithful war- 
rior's victory. Mrs. Spurgeon was still too prostrate 
from the sense of her loss and the exhaustion of 
her long season of trial to be present at the service, 
but she sent the message, "He hath done all things 
well." Mr. Spurgeon 's sister, Mrs. Jackson, and 
her husband, represented the family, and other 
mourners were Mr. Harrald, the deceased's secre- 
tary, and Mr. Allison, one of the deacons, repre- 
senting the Metropolitan Tabernacle, and Rev. B. 
Samuel, representing the Pastors' College. 

Rev. R. Somerville, pastor of the Presbyterian 
church, conducted the service. He said Mr. Spur- 
geon belonged not alone to the Tabernacle and to 
England, but to every Christian country. 

Rev. M. Delapierre, on behalf of the Protestant 
churches of France, spoke of the late pastor's 
interest in those churches. From the first his ser- 
mons had been regularly translated, and in their 
French form had made a lasting impression in that 
country. 

They stood, said Mr. Harrald, in the presence 
of what men called death, but Mr. Spurgeon would 
continue to live in the gospel he had preached. 



FROM MENTONE TO NORWOOD 5 1 

He had fallen on the battle-field, fighting for truth 
to the last, and was still grasping the sword in his 
moment of victory. The first letter opened after 
his death contained a check for £500 for the 
Stockwell Orphanage. 

The remains were conveyed to London and 
placed on the rostrum of the Tabernacle. 

The hold Mr. Spurgeon had on the minds and the 
hearts of the people was strikingly shown on Tues- 
day, February 9th, when from seven in the morn- 
ing till seven at night the Tabernacle was open, 
and an incessant stream of people passed through 
to view the coffin. The arrangements were perfect. 
During the greater part of the day there were hun- 
dreds waiting outside for their turn to enter. 
These were marshaled in queue by the police, and 
were admitted inside the iron gates in batches. 
Thence they were drafted as rapidly as possible 
into the Tabernacle by each of the great doors, 
two by two. Inside each door a deacon stood, 
counting the never-ceasing files, and other deacons 
and elders along the aisles urged the people to 
pass on. Early in the morning many working- 
men, some carrying their tools, went to see the 
coffin of the people's pastor. Later in the day 
came visitors from every part of London. The 
South London lines and the omnibus and train 
companies strengthened their services to accom- 
modate the traffic. In the afternoon, women of 
the working-class made up a great part of the 
stream. Many carried babies. They were poorly 



52 SPURGE 

dressed, but their faces and theii subdued voices 
snowed how they felt the loss. 

It was a dull, dark day, with a drizzling rain, 
and the great Tabernacle, with its vast area and 
galleries of empty pews, looked very gloomy, not- 
withstanding that all the lights were lit. One 
seemed to realize here more than anywhere else 
the extent of the loss. The Metropolitan Taber- 
nacle without Mr. Spurgeon ! It is difficult to im- 
agine it, but the sorrowful fact has to be mastered. 
As we advance slowly up the aisle, we cannot 
at first see the coffin for the wreaths in front of 
it. The rule against flowers has not been inexor- 
ably enforced. One very beautiful wreath, sent 
by the Baptist churches of Belfast, was given the 
place of honor. It was of white flowers, and was 
in the shape of a harp with broken strings, sur- 
mounted by a sword and trowel. On either side 
of the coffin were placed a number of the tall palm 
branches from Mentone, and on the rostrum were 
other palms. The rostrum, the pulpit, and the 
front of the gallery were draped with black, having 
a white border, and in white letters, on the black 
bordering of the rostrum rails, were the words: 
"I have fought a good fight, I have finished my 
course, I have kept the faith." Around the front 
of the upper platform was the inscription: "Re- 
member the words I said unto you, being yet pres- 
ent with you." A marble statuette of Mr. Spur- 
geon, from the Pastors' College, was placed amid 
a group of palms on the lower platform, overlook- 




THE DEAD PASTOR LYING IN STATE 



THE LAST OF EARTH $5 

ing the coffin. It is an excellent likeness of the 
pastor as he appeared ten years ago. Wistfully 
the visitors looked at the coffin as they passed it. 

A deacon presented to each a copy of Mr. Spur- 
geon's sermon, "S. S. ; or, the Sinner Saved," and 
as they passed out they were invited to give a 
farewell contribution to the Orphanage and Pas- 
tors' College, and very generously they responded. 
As they left the Tabernacle at the rear, they saw 
the scaffolding used in the construction of the 
hydraulic lift that was to have helped the preacher 
to ascend his pulpit. In the street, to which they 
emerged, was a long line of men selling photographs 
and biographies of Mr. Spurgeon. The enumera- 
tors counted, during the day, more than 55,000 
people who passed through the Tabernacle. 

A continued series of services were held by the 
members of the Tabernacle, the students of the 
Pastors' College, and the representatives of various 
Christian denominations took part. The last lov- 
ing service took place at Norwood cemetery. The 
bishop of Rochester uttered the final benediction. 
And now after a life of suffering and toil, he rests 
in the peaceful city of the dead. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE PASTORS' COLLEGE 

"How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that 
bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tid- 
ings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy 
God reigneth." — Isaiah. 

The Pastors' College was one of the first results 
of that great faculty for organization which was 
so strong in the pastor of the Tabernacle. It was 
established in 1856, and from that day to this it 
has rendered special and invaluable service. It 
was designed especially to help preachers to preach, 
not to make scholars and theologians. 

Mr. Spurgeon had not been long settled at the 
Tabernacle before he found himself surrounded by 
a number of earnest young men who seemed to 
have caught his spirit, and who, without special 
invitation, to say nothing of ordination, drifted 
into the work of preaching. The fire burned and 
they spoke. They said with the Apostles: "We 
cannot but speak the things we have seen and 
heard." 

These free lances of the pulpit found large and 
eager audiences among the common people, and 
they were eminently successful in leading men and 
women to a better life. They were soon known 
as "Spurgeon's men," or "Tabernacle evangelists." 

56 



THE PASTORS' COLLEGE 57 

What was to be done? They were, for the most 
part, rough and uncultivated. Many of them made 
the grave mistake of trying to imitate Mr. Spur- 
geon, and crude as these imitations were, they 
resulted in a certain kind of popularity. 

It was this kind of material, just budding 
into usefulness, that forced upon Mr. Spurgeon 
the difficult question — what is to be done? The 
establishment of the Pastors' College was the 
practical answer to the question. These men were 
not fitted for the scholarly exposition of the word 
of God, and never would be. Moreover, there 
were colleges all over the country especially adapted 
for the higher kind of education. What was wanted 
was an institution where these rough-and-ready 
men could be drilled in the simple rudiments of 
education, and so fitted for the work of preaching 
and the discharge of plain pastoral duties. Mr. 
Spurgeon laid his plans. No candidate could enter 
his college without the hearty and enthusiastic 
recommendation of the church of which he was a 
member; and further, he must give satisfactory 
proof of his ability to preach. 

. Mr. Spurgeon thus explains the purpose he had 
in view in the establishment of tKe Pastors' Col- 
lege: 

"From the commencement our main object was 
to help men who, from lack of funds, could not 
obtain an education for themselves. These have 
been supplied not only with tuition and books, 
gratis, but with board and lodging, and in some 



58 SPURGEON 

cases with clothes and pocket-money. Some very 
successful brethren needed everything, and if they 
had been required to pay, they must have remained 
illiterate preachers to this day. Still, year by 
year, the number of men who are ready to support 
themselves, in whole or in part, has increased; and 
I believe that it is increasing, and will increase. 
As a college, we have had to struggle with a repute 
based upon falsehood and created by jealousy; but 
this has not injured us to any great extent, for 
men come to us from America, Australia, and the 
Cape, and applications have frequently been made 
from foreign countries. German students have 
attended our classes during their own vacations, and 
members of other colleges are usually to be seen 
at our lectures. The institution never deserved to 
be charged with giving a mere apology for an 
education; and if ever that reproach could have 
been justly cast upon us, it is utterly undeserved 
now that the time of study has become more ex- 
tended, and a fuller course of training has thus 
become possible. Scholarship for its own sake 
was never sought, and never will be within the 
Pastors' College; but to help men to become effi- 
cient preachers has been, and ever will be, the sole 
aim of all those concerned in its management. I 
shall not, in order to increase our prestige, refuse 
poor men, or zealous young Christians whose early 
education has been neglected. Pride would sug- 
gest that we take 'a better class of men;' but 
experience shows that they are not better; that 



THE PASTORS' COLLEGE 6 1 

eminently useful men spring from all ranks, that 
diamonds may be found in the rough, and that 
some who need most pains in the polishing, reward 
our labor a thousandfold. My friends will still 
stand by me in my desire to aid the needy but 
pious brother, and we shall rejoice together as we 
continually see the plowman, the fisherman, and 
the mechanic taught the way of God more per- 
fectly." 

It is needless to say that this institution has 
been eminently successful. The erection of col- 
lege buildings came to be a necessity. They were 
erected at a cost of $75,000, every cent of which 
was provided. Fifteen thousand dollars of this 
sum was presented by a widow lady as a tribute 
to her dead husband, and $10,000 were given as a 
thank-offering by one who had profited by Mr. 
Spurgeon's sermons. 

Hundreds of churches have been established by 
the students of the Pastors' College; many thou- 
sands of members have been brought in church fel- 
lowship, and the exact work Mr. Spurgeon set to 
do, has been accomplished to an extent beyond 
all anticipation. 

* Mr. Spurgeon's addresses to his students contain 
some of the wisest things he ever said. We pre- 
sent a few selections: 

"I am sorry to say that I am made of such ill 
stuff that my Lord has to chasten me often and 
sorely. I am like a pen that will not write unless 



62 SPURGEON 

it be often nibbed, and so I have felt the sharp 
knife many times; and yet I shall not regret my 
pains and crosses so long as my Lord will write 
with me on men's hearts. That is the cause of 
many ministers' afflictions; they are necessary to 
our work. You have heard the fable of the raven 
that wished to drink; but the pitcher had so little 
water in it that he could not reach it, and therefore 
he took stone after stone and dropped it into the 
vessel until the water rose to the brim and he could 
drink. So little grace is in some men that they 
need many sicknesses, bereavements, and other 
afflictions to make their graces available for useful- 
ness. If, however, we receive grace enough to 
bear fruit without continual pruning, so much the 
better. 

"It is expected of us, brethren, that from this 
time we rise to a higher point. It is the Lord's 
due, if we think of what He has done for us. 
Some of my comrades in arms now before me have 
gone through battles as hard as any man may wish 
to fight, and after such success they must never 
say die. After what the Lord has done for us we 
must never strike our flag, nor turn our backs in 
the day of battle. Sir Francis Drake, when it was* 
feared that he would be wrecked in the Thames, 
said: 'What! Have I been round the world, and am 
I now to be drowned in a ditch? Not I. ' So say I 
to you, brethren; you have done business in stormy 
waters, and will you sink in a village pond? 
We shall not be worse treated than we have been. 



THE PASTORS' COLLEGE 63 

We are now in fine fighting trim, for we are hard- 
ened by former blows. A great pugilist at Rome 
was so battered, his nose, eyes, face were so dis- 
figured, that he was always ready to fight, because 
he said: 4 I cannot look worse than I do.' Per- 
sonally, I am much in the same plight. Men can- 
not say anything worse of me than they have said. 
I have been belied from head to foot, and misrepre- 
sented to the last degree. My good looks are gone, 
and none can much damage me now. Some of you 
have had more to batter you than you are likely to 
endure again; you have had trial and tribulation, 
and affliction as heavy as you can have them; and 
after having stood in the lists so long, surely you 
are not going to yield and slink away like cowards ? 
God forbid it! God forbid it! God grant, on the 
contrary, that the elder ones among you may have 
the pleasure, not only of winning battles for Christ, 
but of seeing others, who have been saved under 
your instrumentality, trained to fight better than 
yourselves for Jesus ! I read the other day a story, 
and with that I will conclude, desiring that I may 
in spiritual things have the same joy myself, and 
that it may be the lot of you all. Diagoras, the 
Rhodian, had in his time won many wreaths at the 
Olympian games. He had two boys, and he 
brought them up to the same profession. The day 
came when his own force abated, and he was no 
longer able to strive for masteries in his own per- 
son ; but he went up to tne Olympian games with 
his two sons. He saw the blows they gave and 



64 SPURGE ON 

received, and rejoiced when he discovered that 
they were both victorious. A Lacedaemonian said 
to him: 'You may die now, Diagoras;' meaning 
that the old man might die content, because he 
had in his own person, and in that of his sons, 
obtained the highest honors. The old man seemed 
to feel that it was even so; for when his two sons 
came and shouldered their father, and carried him 
through the camp amid the ringing cheers of the 
great assembly, the old man, flushed with excite- 
ment, died under the eyes of the assembled Greeks. 
It would have been a wiser thing to have lived, for 
he had a third son who became more renowned 
than the other two; but he passed away on a wave 
cf victory. Oh, brethren, may you have spiritual 
children who shall win battles for the Lord, and 
may you live to see them doing it; then may you 
say with Simeon: 'Lord, now lettest Thou Thy 
servant depart in peace, according to Thy word.'" 
#• # * # * 

"The Berkshire proverb says, 'There be more 
ways of killing a cat than by choking of him with 
cream,' and surely some preachers appear to know 
that there are more ways of wearying a hearer than 
by surfeiting him with good, sound, creamy doc- 
trine. Oh, for a sermon with something in it! 
Xever mind the finicking with the cooking and the 
carving; do give us a cut of gospel truth! Alas! 
we too often get 'Grantham gruel — nine grits and 
a gallon of water, ' and we are expected to praise 
the stuff because the basin is of rare china. There 



THE PASTORS' COLLEGE 6$ 

is not enough in it to make soup for a grasshopper, 
and yet we are called upon to go into raptures 
because what there is of it is soundly evangelical. 

"At other times the teaching is rather queer and 
very muddy, and then they tell us that the par- 
son gives us little doctrine because he is % thinking 
it out and has not yet made up his mind. Verily, 
'while the grass grows the steed starves, ' and' we 
should be far better off if the Lord would send us 
some of the old sort of experienced men of God, 
who knew what they did know, and fed our fathers 
with knowledge and understanding. Our modern 
collegians boast of being independent thinkers, and 
if that means that they are not to be depended on, 
they are pretty near the mark. They pare down 
the gospel till, as the Yankees say, it is shaved 
off finer than the 'small end of nothing. ' It is time 
this nonsense was exploded. Lord Byron said, 
'A book's a book, although there's nothing in't!' 
but country people do not say so of a sermon, and 
if they did, we are not all bumpkins, and cannot 
be quite so easily satisfied." 

* * -* •& 

"Beloved brethren, if you are filled with love to 
your work, and love to souls, and love to God, you 
will gladly endure many self-denials which else 
would be unbearable. The poverty of our country, 
brethren, is very trying, and ought by all means to 
be relieved; but we may well feel proud that so 
many men are forthcoming who, for the sake of 
preaching the gospel of Christ, are willing to leave 



66 SPURGEON 

remunerative callings and endure hardness. Other 
denominations might pay them better, but they 
spurn the golden bribe, and remain faithful to 
Christ and to the ordinances as they were delivered. 
All honor to those life-long martyrs who put up 
with sore privations for the sake of Christ and His 
Church. The devil once met a Christian man, so 
I have heard, and said to him: 'You call yourself 
a servant of God. What do you do more than I 
do? You boast that you fast; so do I; for I neither 
eat nor drink. You do not commit adultery; 
neither do I.' The fiend mentioned a long list of 
sins of which he is incapable, from which he could 
therefore claim exemption. The saint at last said 
to him: 'I do one thing which thou never didst; 
I deny myself. ' That is the point in which the 
Christian comes out; he denies himself for Christ's 
sake ; believing in Jesus, he counts all things but 
loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ 
Jesus his Lord. Brethren, do not leave your 
charges because the stipend is small. Your poor 
people must be looked after by somebody. Do 
not despair when times are hard, for they will be 
better by and by; and meanwhile your heavenly 
Father knows your needs. We have heard of men 
who have remained in plague-stricken cities when 
others fled, because they could be of service to the 
sick. Abide, then, with your people when work 
fails them; be as faithful to your God as many a 
man has been faithful to his philanthropy. If you 
can anyhow manage to tide over the present dis- 



THE PASTORS' COLLEGE 6 J 

tress, stick to the people. God will help you and 
reward you if you have faith in Him. May the 
Lord confirm your confidence, and comfort you in 
your tribulation! 

"Go on, brethren, go on preaching the same 
gospel; but preach it with more faith, and preach 
it better every day. Do not draw back; your 
place is at the front. Qualify yourselves for larger 
spheres, you that are in little places; but do not 
neglect your studies to look after better positions. 
Be prepared for an opening when it comes, and 
rest assured that the office will come to the man 
who is fit for the office. We are not so cheap that 
we need go hawking ourselves in every market; 
the churches are always on the look-out for really 
efficient preachers. Men whose fitness for the 
ministry is doubtful are at a great discount now- 
adays; but for men of ability and usefulness there 
is great demand. 

"You cannot hide a candle under a bushel, and 
you cannot keep a really able man in an insignifi- 
cant position. Patronage is of the smallest impor- 
tance; fitness for the work, grace, ability, earnest- 
ness, and a loving disposition, soon push the man 
into his place. God will bring His servant into 
his true position, if he has but faith to trust in 
Him. I put this word at the tail-end of my 
address, because I know the discouragements under 
which you labor. Do not be afraid of hard work 
for Christ; a terrible reckoning awaits those who 
have an easy time in the ministry, but a great 



6S SPURGEON 

reward is in reserve for those who endure all things 
for the elect's sake. You will not regret your 
poverty when Christ cometh and calleth His own 
servants to Him." 

# * # * * 

"Petrarch's works are said to have lain so long 
in the roof of St. Mark's at Venice,, that they 
became turned into stone; by what process depo- 
nent sayeth not. To many men it might well 
seem that the Word of God had become petrified, 
for they receive it as a hard, lifeless creed, a stone 
upon which to sharpen the daggers of controversy, 
a stumbling-block for young beginners, a millstone 
with which to break opponents' heads, after the 
manner experienced by Abimelech at Thebez. A 
man must have a stout digestion to feed upon some 
men's theology* — no sap. no sweetness, no life, but 
all stern accuracy and fleshless definition. Pro- 
claimed without tenderness and argued without 
affection, the gospel from such men rather resem- 
bles a missile from a catapult than bread from a 
Father's table. Teeth are needlessly broken over 
the grit of systematic theology, while souls are 
famishing. To turn stones into bread was a temp- 
tation of our Master; but how many of His servants 
yield readily to the far worse temptation to turn 
bread into stone! Go thy way, metaphysical 
divine, to the stone-yard, and break granite for 
McAdam, but stand not in the way of loving 
spirits who would feed the family of God with liv- 
ing bread. The inspired Word is to us spirit and 



THE PASTORS' COLLEGE 69 

life, and we cannot afford to have it hardened into 
a huge monolith or a spiritual Stonehenge — 
sublime but cold, majestic but lifeless; far rather 
would we have it as jur own household book, our 
bosom companion, the poor man's counselor and 
friend." 



v3& 4» 



CHAPTER VII 

THE STOCKWELL ORPHANAGE 

" I was a father to the poor. I caused the widow's heart to 
sing for joy." — Job. 

"The God that answereth by Orphanages let him be God." 

— C. H. Spurgeon. 

"I love to have the children feel that there is nothing in this 
world more attractive, more earnestly to be desired, than manhood 
in Jesus Christ." — Henry Ward Beecher. 

The most popular of all the institutions with 
which Mr. Spurgeon's name is associated is the 
Stockwell Orphanage, an institution whose origin 
was somewhat romantic. 

Mr. Spurgeon was accustomed to the strangest 
kind of correspondence and one morning in Sep- 
tember, 1866, he received a letter that, as he said, 
took away his appetite for breakfast. A lady, 
signing herself Mrs. Hillyard, and indicating that 
she was the widow of a clergyman of the Church 
of Enlgand, possessed of considerable wealth, 
wrote that after much thought and prayer she had 
resolved to place at his disposal, to be used as he 
thought best for the glory of God, the sum of 
£20,000; in round numbers $100,000. 

Was this another hoax? It was interesting 
beyond measure to hear Mr. Spurgeon tell this 
story. Was some poor demented creature gratify- 

70 



THE STOCKWELL ORPHANAGE ?I 

ing herself by proposing what in her poor sad heart 
she desired, and would do if she could? Perhaps 
Mrs. Hillyard, not accustomed to finance, had mis- 
taken the figures, and meant to give £2,000. Even 
that was a magnanimous gift! The letter begged 
Mr. Spurgeon to call at his convenience at a given 
address. Mr. Spurgeon went, with little faith in 
the outcome of his visit. But he found that this 
time there was no hoax, but a golden door was 
thrown wide open for boundless and undreamed- 
of usefulness. 

After much prayer and consultation it was finally 
resolved that this magnificent gift should be devoted 
to the education of fatherless boys. It would be 
impossible to go into all the details of the scheme. 
Whatever gifts of pulpit eloquence Mr. Spurgeon 
possessed, they were poor compared with his sagac- 
ity in all matters of organization. Great in the 
pulpit, he was also great in counsel, and the result 
is that he never put his hand to anything that did 
not prove a grand success. Failure was a word 
never heard at the Tabernacle. 

When it was decided that Mrs. Hillyard's be- 
quest should be devoted to an orphanage, Mr. 
Spurgeon was determined on a home-life for these 
fatherless boys. If there was to be an orphanage, 
that orphanage should have all the elements of 
home; and so there were to be separate houses and 
these boys, grouped together in little families, were 
to be under the watchful care of some Christian 
matron. There was to be no promiscuous herd- 
5 



72 SPURGEON 

ings together; but a system of careful selection was 
introduced, by which, as far as possible, the boys 
most suited to be companions were grouped into 
little families, and were "at home" to a degree that 
proved perfectly delightful. 

It was not designed to give these orphans a 
luxurious, easy life, or an elaborate education, but 
to give them the comforts of a Christian home and 
plain education in matters that would fit them for 
the common every-day duties of life. They were 
not to be made scholars or gentlemen, in the tech- 
nical sense of those terms. Mr. Spurgeon said 
what the world wanted was men, and the work of 
the Stockwell Orphanage was to take these boys 
w T ho had lost their fathers and make manly fellows 
of them. There was nothing over-sentimenta] or 
ostentatiously religious in the atmosphere of Stock- 
well. It was a religious home, but there was as 
little cant in its management as Sanscrit in its 
schools. Nor were there any denominational pref- 
erences in the election of those who were to share 
its favors. Nothing would have been easier than 
for Mr. Spurgeon to have made a denominational 
institution of the orphanage. But Mr. Spurgeon's 
heart was greater than any creed; in all such mat- 
ters as this his sympathies were as universal as the 
sorrows of the great family of suffering humanity. 
And the fact that of the first 646 boys admitted to 
Stockwell, 230 were the sons of members of the 
Church of England, is a fact that proves better 
than all words what a generous, catholic heart 
this man possessed. 



THE STOCKWELL ORPHANAGE 73 

The sum presented by Mrs. Hillyard formed 
only the nucleus of a grand endowment. Land 
was bought in Stockwell and put in trust. Gen- 
erous souls all over England vied with each other 
in contributing to this laudable enterprise. The 
happy home idea made the building of separate 
houses desirable, and this afforded the opportunity 
for churches and communities to combine, and 
one after another the houses went up, and the 
whole institution soon presented a beautiful and 
picturesque appearance. There is "A Silver Wed- 
ding House," "The Merchant's House," "Testimo- 
nial Houses" from the Baptist Union, and the 
"Workman's House." 

Stockwell Orphanage is now one of the lions of 
religious London. Philanthropists visiting the 
great city mark it down side by side with the 
famous Foundlings' Home, as a place not to be 
missed. But Stockwell, to be seen in all its glory, 
must be seen on Anniversary Day, or at Christ- 
mas, with Mr. Spurgeon in the chair, and the 
genial Vernon Charlesworth at his right hand. 
There is a brief meeting, three or four very short 
talks, aimed specially at the boys, and then the 
day is given up to merriment. Games of all sorts 
are enjoyed by the boys, and some of the elder 
boys who have come to visit, and even reverend 
boys, with gray hair and venerable looks, forget 
their years and dignity and join the frolic. Mr. 
Spurgeon is everywhere, beaming kindness with 
every look, and inspiring affection with every word. 



74 SPURGEON 

You will be sure to find him a dozen times in the 
day by the big swimming bath, with a handful of 
coppers, pitching them in for the boys to dive for, 
and laughing at their frantic efforts till tears roll 
down his cheeks for very gladness. A great crowd 
of visitors, with their bright, gay summer attire, 
makes the scene a sort of midsummer day-dream 
on the southern border of smoky London. But 
even such days come to an end. The boys are 
gathered together, a few kindly words are spoken 
by Mr. Spurgeon, a great cheer for Mr. Charles- 
worth, a hymn, a short prayer, and the benedic- 
tion, and then silence reigns over Stockwell. 

But Christmas is also a great day at the orphan- 
age. What a dinner for 500 hungry boys! Plum 
puddings, such a size! And smoking hot! Roast 
beef and mince pies ! And then — for every boy 
a Christmas gift. A gentleman in the city pro- 
vides for ever)- boy a small box of figs, another 
generous soul puts a beautiful orange on every box 
of figs, and another gentleman, who has something 
to do with "The old lady in Thread-needle Street," 
as the Bank of England is sometimes called, puts 
on the fig-box a bright new shilling, straight from 
the mint, that has never been in circulation. It 
is a sight never to be forgotten to stand by Mr. 
Spurgeon' s side in the dining-room of Stockwell 
Orphanage, on Christmas day. The dinner is 
served, every boy stands in his place, before him 
on his plate is his box of figs, his orange, and his 
"bright, new bob," a blessing is asked, and then, 




THE STOCKWELL ORPHANAGE 



THE STOCKWELL ORPHANAGE ?7 

as quick as a shot from a gun, every boy sits down 
and begins to do his duty as a gallant young En- 
glishman. For nearly twenty-five years this pro- 
cession of fatherless boys, now numbering many 
thousands, has gone on, enjoying these advantages 
of home-life, these scenes of gladness, and so have 
been fitted for the duties of life. 

The unspeakable blessing this institution has 
been can never be told. The number of boys who 
have passed through can be told, and other mat- 
ters can be tabulated, but the grand results elude 
all figures. One of the purposes of the manage- 
ment is to find positions in stores and factories, 
in mills and railroads, for these boys as soon as 
they are ready for work. And it is not too much 
to say that there are thousands of young business 
men in London to-day, and, indeed, all over the 
country, and in other lands, who are doing well, 
who are proud to own their indebtedness to "Spur- 
geon's Orphanage" — as they will persist in calling 
Stockwell — for the good start in life they received. 
Some hundreds of these graduates from the orphan- 
age are engaged in the work of the Christian minis- 
try, others are lawyers, some doctors, and a few 
have risen to prominent positions of public trust. 
All the Stockwell boys have not turned out as well 
as could be desired. In such large numbers it 
could only be that here and there sad cases would 
arise. But the fewness of these <has been quite 
surprising. We cast our seed into the fruitful 
soil, but every seed does not grow. The seed 



78 SPURGEON 

sown by generous hands at Stockwell Orphanage 
through a whole generation has brought forth a 
glorious harvest, a harvest that will enrich the 
world for generations to come. 

The unstinted liberality of Mr. Spurgeon's 
friends in the matter of the orphanage is really won- 
derful. But the truth is Mr. Spurgeon never asked 
unwisely for money, and the public soon had such 
confidence in his judgment in all financial matters 
that he always ^got what he asked for. And it 
should be said that he never once took advantage 
of that confidence. It cost about $50 a day to 
provide for the orphanage. Mr. Spurgeon would 
not go in debt ; but sometimes he came very near it. 
It was not a very uncommon thing to hear him say 
on Sunday at the Tabernacle: "Beloved! There 
are only three shots left in the Orphanage locker. 
It takes ;£io a day to keep those hungry boys. 
This is the Lord's work — and yours." Nothing 
more was needed. The money always came. The 
Metropolitan Tabernacle, and all its associate 
organizations, was quite as grand a financial as a 
religious success. 

John B. Gough, the great Apostle of Temper- 
ance, paid a visit to the orphanage, which he thus 
describes: 

"I would like to give you one incident to illus- 
trate the man in his greatness and simplicity. He 
wished me to visit his Boys' Orphanage at Stock- 
well. I could go only on Saturday, and his note 
to me was characteristic: 



THE STOCKWELL ORPHANAGE 79 

"'Beloved friend: — Although I never go out on 
Saturdays — my horses, being under the law and 
not under grace, keep the seventh-day Sabbath — 
yet we will arrange to visit, ' etc. 

"A beautiful day it was, for London, as we rode 
together, chatting all the way. The history of the 
orphanage is intensely interesting. The com- 
mencement was a sum of $100,000 to Mr* Spur- 
geon, from a lady, to commence an orphanage for 
fatherless boys. All the money that has been 
expended has been raised by voluntary contribu- 
tions, and the $100,000 is invested as an endow- 
ment. 

"When we entered the grounds, the boys set 
up a shout of joy at the sight of their benefactor. 

"I asked, 'What are the requirements for admis- 
sion?' 

"He said, 'Utter destitution. Nothing denomi- 
national. We have more of the Church of England 
than of the Baptists. We have Roman Catholics, 
Presbyterians, Methodists — all sorts. ' 

"After the boys had gone through their gym- 
nastic exercises and military drill, I spoke a few 
words to them. Mr. Spurgeon was like a great 
boy among boys. 

"He said, 'There are 240 boys — only think! 
How many pence are there in a shilling?' 

" 'Twelve. ' 

"•Right. How many shillings in a pound?' 

" 'Twenty. ' 

"'Right. Twelve times twenty, how many?' 

" 'Two hundred and forty. ' 



80 SPURGEON 

"'That's a penny apiece each boy.' 

" 'Here, Mr. Charlesworth, ' handing him a sov- 
ereign, 'give these boys a penny apiece;' when a 
shrill, hearty hurrah was given, as Mr. Spurgeon 
turned away with a laugh of keen enjoyment. 

" 'Will you go to the infirmary? We have an 
infirmary and quarantine; for sometimes the poor 
creatures we take in need a good deal of purifying. 
We have one boy very ill with consumption; he 
cannot live, and I wish to see him, for he would 
be disappointed if he knew I had been here and 
had not seen him.' 

"We went into the cool and sweet chamber, 
and there lay the boy. He was very much excited 
when he saw Mr. Spurgeon. The great preacher 
sat by his side, and I cannot describe the scene. 
Holding the boy's hand in his, he said: 

" 'Well, my dear, you have some precious 
promises in sight all round the room. Now, dear, 
you are going to die, and you are very tired lying 
here, and soon will be free from all pain, and you 
will rest. Nurse, did he rest last night?' 

" 'He coughed very much. ' 

" 'Ah, my dear boy, it seems very hard for you 
to lie here all day in pain, and cough at night. 
Do you love Jesus?' 

" 'Yes. ' 

"'Jesus loves you. He bought you with His 
precious blood, and He knows what is best for 
you. It seems hard for you to lie here and listen 
to the shouts of the healthy boys outside at play. 



THE STOCKWELL ORPHANAGE 8 1 

But soon Jesus will take you home, and then He 
will tell you the reason, and you will be so glad. ' 

"Then, laying his hand on the boy, without the 
formality of kneeling, he said: 'O Jesus, Master, 
this dear child is reaching out his thin hand to find 
Thine. Touch him, dear Savior, with Thy loving, 
warm clasp. Lift him as he passes the cold river, 
that his feet be not chilled by the water of death; 
take him home in Thine own good time. Comfort 
and cherish him till that good time comes. Show 
him Thyself as he lies here, and let him see Thee, 
and know Thee more and more as his loving 
Savior. ' 

"After a moment's pause, he said, 'Now, dear, 
is there anything you would like? Would you 
like a little canary in a cage, to hear him sing in 
the morning? Nurse, see that he has a canary 
to-morrow morning. Good-bye, my dear; you 
will see the Savior, perhaps, before I shall.' 

"I have seen Mr. Spurgeon hold by his power 
6, 500 persons in a breathless interest; I knew him 
as a great man universally esteemed and beloved; 
but as he sat by the bedside of a dying pauper 
child, whom his beneficence had rescued, he was 
to me a greater and grander man than when sway- 
ing the mighty multitude at his will." 

The last page in the history of Mr. Spurgeon' s 
love for his "dear Stockwell boys" is exceedingly 
pathetic. Christmas, as has been said, was always 
a great time at the orphanage. But the Christ- 
mas of 1 89 1 was clouded with sad apprehensions 



82 SPURGEON 

in which even the youngest boys seemed to share. 
Mr. Spurgeon had gone to Mentone, in the south 
of France, hoping that the milder climate might 
bring back his strength, but the hope was feeble, 
and every day prayers were offered in the orphan- 
age for his recovery. The fact that they were 
permitted to send a Christmas letter to their 
absent pastor and friend — for Mr. Spurgeon was 
regarded as pastor of the orphanage as well as the 
Tabernacle — was a great joy to the boys and girls 
at Stockwell, and along with their letter they sent 
a little flower, which they asked him to be sure 
and wear on Christmas day, that he might be 
reminded all day long how dearly they loved him. 
All their kindness had been anticipated. Mr. 
Charlesworth, the master of the orphanage, re- 
ceived a letter from Mr. Spurgeon to be read to the 
boys on Christmas day. It was the last message 
of love they were ever to receive from him. And, 
though a little lengthy, we venture to give it here, 
for it shows the inner heart of this friend of the 
fatherless. It is worthy in all respects to be placed 
side by side with Martin Luther's celebrated letter 
to his son Hans. It breathes the same spirit, 
it comes from as great a heart. 

The Christmas dinner was over, and, in a still- 
ness that seemed strangely sad in such an hour and 
with such an audience, Mr. Spurgeon's last letter 
was read. It ran thus: 



THE STOCKWELL ORPHANAGE 83 

"Mentone, December 21, 1891. 
"Dear Boys and Girls: — 

"I send you all my love as far as the post 
eaii carry love at two-pence half-penny for an 
ounce. I wish you a glorious Christmas. I might 
have said 'A jolly Christmas!' if we had all been 
boys; but, as some of us are girls, I will be proper 
and say 'A merry Christmas!' Enjoy yourselves, 
and feel grateful to the kind friends who find money 
to keep the Stockwell Orphanage supplied. Bless 
their loving hearts, they never let you want for 
anything. May they have pleasure in seeing you 
all grow up to be good men and women. Feel 
very grateful also to the trustees. These gentle- 
men are always at work arranging for your good. 
Give them three times three. Then there are Mr. 
Charlesworth, Mr. Ladds, and all the masters and 
the matrons. Each one of them deserves your love 
and gratitude and obedience. They try to do you 
good; try to cheer them all you can. I should 
like you to have a fine day, such a day as we have 
here; but, if not, you will be bright and warm in- 
doors. Three cheers for those who give us the 
good things for this festival ! I want you for a 
moment in the day to be all still and spend the 
time in thanking our heavenly Father and the 
Lord Jesus Christ for the great goodness shown to 
you and to me, and then pray for me, that I may 
get quite well again. Mrs. Spurgeon and I both 
send our love to all the Stockwell family. 
"Yours very heartily, 

"C. H. Spurgeon," 



84 SPURGEON 

Once a year, on Mr. Spurgeon's birthday, a fes- 
tival is held in the Orphanage grounds, at which 
large offerings are brought by many friends. It 
has been our privilege to attend many of these 
gatherings, and in one house at least this fete is 
always a day of joy, anticipated with pleasure, and 
enjoyed most thoroughly. 

Before leaving this subject, we may mention the 
fact that recently Mr. Charlesworth and a band of 
the orphans have visited most of the chief towns 
in the United Kingdom. They give a hand-bell 
entertainment, which is interspersed with recita- 
tions. The author ventures to suggest that Chris- 
tian churches might materially assist this most 
beneficent design by inviting Mr. Charlesworth and 
his band to plead the cause of this institution. 
From the experience of more than one visit, the 
writer can testify to the delight with which the pub- 
lic appreciate the efforts of the boys. 

The unsectarian character of this institution 
will be seen when the following table is ex- 
amined. It will be especially noticed, that stanch 
as Mr. Spurgeon is in his own beliefs — and he is 
most intensely a Baptist — the Stockwell Orphanage 
is not a sectarian institution. 

THE RELIGIOUS PROFESSION OF THE PARENTS OF THE 
ORPHANS 

Church of England . . • . . 585 

Baptist 387 

Congregational . • . . , .160 



THE STOCKWELL ORPHANAGE 



85 



Wesleyan 


• • • 


140 


Presbyterian 


> • • • 


. 28 


Brethren . 


• • » 


9 


Roman Catholic . 


• • • • 


3 


Moravian . 


• • • 


2 


Bible Christian 


• • • • 


2 


Society of Friends 


• • • 


2 


Salvation Army . 


» • • • 


1 


Not specified 


. 


194 



In later years girls have been admitted to this in- 
stitution. Mr. Spurgeon exercised a great deal of 
careful thought on this subject. In this matter, 
as all others that he deemed important, he was 
never impulsive. And to some ardent spirits, who 
thought him now and again a little tardy, he had 
one reply that admitted of no argument: "Thus 
saith the Lord, the righteous shall not make haste." 

Of Mr. Spurgeon, more than of most men, it 
may be said: "He made haste slowly, and there- 
fore surely." For some years the girls have shared 
with the boys the advantages of Stockwell. The 
experiment was tried as an experiment and has 
proved a success. 



86 



SPURGEON 



MR. SPURGEON'S PARABLE OF HIS WIFE 



I saw in my dream a man worn and weary with 
working the handle of a pump, from which no 
water came. Hard by was his garden, and all 
the flowers and plants were pining for water, but 
he had none to give them. Then I saw a woman 
coming toward him, bearing a pitcher of water. 
She stopped and spoke cheerily to the weary one; 
and anon she smilingly poured the contents of her 
pitcher down the pump, and immediately it began 
to work, and pour forth waters of its jown. How 
the husbandman blessed her! 



CHAPTER VIII 



MRS. SPURGEON 



" A woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised." 

— Solomon. 

" The fountain of joy is fed by tears, 

And love is lit by the breath of sighs; 

The deepest griefs and the saddest tears 
Have holiest ministries." 

— Josiah G. Holland. 

Under ordinary circumstances this tribute to the 
memory of Mr. Spurgeon would have been com- 
pleted without any reference to those sacred rela- 
tions which constitute a sanctuary into which no 
stranger should intrude. But the circumstances 
are special, and demand a reference, however brief. 
Mrs. Spurgeon has been for a quarter of a century 
a greater sufferer than her late husband. Through 
all those years of pain and seclusion, she was able 
to minister greatly by her sympathy to the fullness 
and gentleness of Mr. Spurgeon's character and 
work. She was "the still, small voice" ever at his 
side, so strong to soothe, to comfort and encour- 
age, when "the heart failed and the hands of his 
arms grew feeble." None will ever know how 
much the strong man owed, even in his strongest 
hours, to the tender ministries of the quiet sufferer. 

In later years, a door of practical usefulness 
opened, and from her sick chamber Mrs. Spur- 

87 



55 SPURGEON 

geon was enabled to take charge of a Book Fund, 
by which the sparse libraries of hundreds of poor 
ministers and students were increased. This work 
was touched with the spirit of romantic success 
that seemed to mark all the work connected, nearly 
or remotely, with the Metropolitan Tabernacle. 
What manner of woman Mrs. Spurgeon is, may be 
gathered from a single incident, which she describes 
with tender pathos: 

"A curious little incident happened lately during 
a time of prolonged sickness. At the close of a 
very dark and gloomy day, I lay resting on my 
couch as the deeper night drew on, and though all 
was bright within my cozy little room, some of the 
external darkness seemed to have entered into my 
soul and obscured its spiritual vision. Vainly I 
tried to see the Hand which I knew held mine, and 
guided my fog-enveloped feet along a steep and 
slippery path of suffering. In sorrow of heart I 
asked, 'Why does my Lord thus deal with His 
child? Why does He so often send sharp and 
bitter pain to visit me? Why does He permit 
lingering weakness to hinder the sweet service I 
long to render to His poor servants?' These fret- 
ful questions were quickly answered, and, though 
in a strange language, no interpreter was needed 
save the conscious whisper of my own heart. For 
a while silence reigned in the little room, broken 
only by the crackling of the oak log burning on 
the hearth. Suddenly I heard a sweet, soft sound, 
a little, clear, musical note, like the tender trill of 




MRS. SPURGEON 



MRS. SPURGEON Ql 

a robin beneath my window. 'What can that be?' 
I said to my companion, who was dozing in the 
firelight; 'surely no bird can be singing out there 
at this time of the year and night. ' We listened, 
and again heard the faint, plaintive notes, so sweet, 
so melodious, yet mysterious enough to provoke 
for a moment our undisguised wonder. Presently 
my friend exclaimed, 'It comes from the log on 
the fire!' and we soon ascertained that her sur- 
prised assertion was correct. The fire was letting 
loose the imprisoned music from the old oak's 
inmost heart! Perchance he had garnered up this 
song in the days when all went well with him, 
when birds twittered merrily on his branches, and 
the soft sunlight flecked his tender leaves with 
gold. But he had grown old since then, and hard- 
ened; ring after ring of knotty growth had sealed 
up the lorig-forgotten melody, until the fierce 
tongues of the flames came to consume his callous- 
ness, and the vehement heat of the fire wrung 
from him at once a song and a sacrifice. Ah, 
thought I, when the fire of affliction draws songs 
of praise from us, then indeed are we purified, and 
our God is glorified ! Perhaps some of us are like 
this old oak log, cold, hard and insensible; we 
should give forth no melodious sounds, were it not 
for the fire which kindles round us, and releases 
tender notes of trust in Him, and cheerful com- 
pliance with His will. 'As I mused the fire burned, ' 
and my soul found sweet comfort in the parable 
so strangely set forth before me. Singing in the 



92 SPURGEON 

fire. Yes. God helping us, if that is the only 
way to get harmony out of these hard, apathetic 
hearts, let the furnace be heated seven times hot- 
ter than before." 

To the early home where the boys were born 
and reared Mrs. Spurgeon became greatly attached. 
And when the time came to leave Nightingale 
Lane for Westwood, she wrote in the following 
strain of the dear old home: 

"The heart yearns over a place endeared by an 
intimate acquaintance of twenty-three years, and 
full of happy or solemn associations. Every nook 
and corner, both of house and garden, abounds 
with sweet or sorrowful memories, and the remem- 
brance of manifold mercies clings like a rich 
tapestry to the walls of the desolate rooms. On 
this spot nearly a quarter of a century of blissful 
wedded life has been passed, and, though both 
husband and wife have been called to suffer severe 
physical pain and months of weakness within its 
boundary, our home has been far oftener a 'Bethel' 
to us than a 'Boachim. ' The very walls might cry 
out against us as ungrateful, did we not silence 
them by our ceaseless thanksgiving; for the Lord 
has here loaded us with benefits, and consecrated 
every inch of space with tokens of His great lov- 
ing-kindness. The sun of His goodness has photo- 
graphed every portion of our dear home upon our 
hearts, and though other lights and shadows must 
be reflected there in coming days, they can never 
obliterate the sweet images which grateful memory 



MRS. SPURGEON 93 

will jealously preserve. Tender remembrances will 
render indelible the pictures of the sick-chamber, 
which so many times had almost been the gate of 
heaven to our spirit; the little room tenderly fitted 
up by a husband's careful love, and so often the 
scene of a scarcely hoped-for convalescence; the 
study, sacred to the pastor's earnest work, and 
silent witness of wrestlings and communings known 
only to God and his own soul. In this room," 
adds Mrs. Spurgeon, "by desire of the incoming 
tenants, has been placed the following inscription, 
written by Mr. Spurgeon: 

" < Farewell, fair room! I leave thee to a friend! 
Peace dwell with him, and all his kin. 
May angels evermore the house defend, 
Their Lord hath often been within."' 

The following lines from Mrs. Spurgeon's pen 
admit us into the inner sanctuary of the home: 

"For some time past it has been the dear pas- 
tor's custom, as soon as the texts for the Lord's- 
day's services have been given by the 'Master, ' to 
call me into the study, and permit me to read the 
various commentaries on the subject-matter in 
hand. Never was occupation more delightful, 
instructive and spiritually helpful. My heart has 
often burned within me as the meaning of some 
passage of God's Word has been opened up, and 
the hidden stores of wisdom and knowledge have 
been revealed ; or when the marrow and fatness of 
a precious promise or doctrine has been spread like 
a dainty banquet before my admiring eyes. Shall 
I ever forget those solemn evenings, when the 



94 SPURGEON 

sufferings of the Lord Jesus were the theme of tear- 
ful meditation ? When, with love and grief our heart 
dividing, we followed Him through the night on 
which He was betrayed, weeping like the daughters 
of Jerusalem, and saying, 'There never was sorrow 
like unto this sorrow;' or the more rapturous time 
when the exceeding riches of His grace was to be 
the topic for the morrow, and we were fairly bewil- 
dered by the inexhaustible treasures of love and 
grace to be found in that fair 'land of Havilah, 
where there is gold!' 

"Then come delightful pauses in my reading, 
when the book is laid down, and I listen to the 
dear voice of my beloved as he explains what I 
cannot understand, or unfolds meanings which I 
should fail to see, often condensing into a few 
clear, choice sentences whole pages of those dis- 
cursive old divines in whom he delights, and press- 
ing from the gathered thoughts all the richest nec- 
tar of their hidden sweetness. Thus a poor pris- 
oner has the first sip of the wines on the lees, well 
refined, the first morsel from the loaves with which 
the thousands are to be fed and refreshed on the 
morrow. How can I sufficiently thank God for 
this drink of the brook by the way, this holy place 
within my home, where I find the Lord deigns to 
meet with me, and draw out my heart in adora- 
tion and worship ? Lord, I bless and praise Thee, 
that thus Thou hast most blessedly fulfilled Thine 
own words, 'I will not leave you comfortless. I 
will come unto you. '" 



CHAPTER IX 

EPISODES AND ANECDOTES 

14 Variety is the very spice of life 
That gives it all its flavor." 

— William Cewper. 

" Life is arched with changing skies; 
Rarely are they what they seem; 
Children we, of smiles and sighs — 
Much we know, but more we dream." 

— William Winter. 

Every history has its romance, every life its 
laughter and its tears. There are episodes in 
every human story full of interest, and anecdotes 
full of charm. In Mr. Spurgeon's life these 
abounded. Many thousands who love the very 
name of the great preacher will be glad to read 
every anecdote, and learn every detail of his busy 
life; not because they are curious, but because 
every memory of him is a priceless treasure. 

MR. KNILL'S PROPHECY CONCERNING MR. SPURGEON 

The story of Mr. Knill prophesying when Mr. 
Spurgeon was only a boy that he would live to be 
a great preacher, has been often referred to 
somewhat critically. In the last book Mr. Spur- 
geon wrote he gives the following detailed account 
of the matter: 

"The story of Mr. Knill' s prophesying that I 
95 



g6 SPURGEON 

should preach the gospel in Rowland Hill's 
Chapel, and to the largest congregations in the 
world, has been regarded by many as a legend, 
but it was strictly true. Mr. Knill took the county 
of Essex in the year 1844, and traversed the 
region from town to town, as a deputation for the 
London Missionary Society. In the course of that 
journey he spent a little time at Stambourne par- 
sonage. In his heart burned the true missionary 
spirit, for he sought the souls of young and old, 
whenever they came in his way. He was a great 
soul winner, and he soon spied out the boy. He 
said to me, 'Where do you sleep? For I want to 
call you up in the morning. ' I showed him my 
little room, and he took good note of it. At six 
o'clock he called me up. There stood in my grand- 
father's garden two arbors made of yew trees, 
cut into sugar-loaf fashion. Though the old manse 
has given way to a new one, and the old chapel 
has gone also, yet the yew trees flourish as afore- 
time. We went into the right-hand arbor, and 
there, in the sweetest way, he told me of the love 
of Jesus, and of the blessedness of trusting in him 
and loving him in our childhood. With many a 
story he preached Christ to me, and told me how 
good God had been to him, and then he prayed 
that I might know the Lord and serve him. He 
knelt down in that arbor and prayed for me with 
his arms about my neck. He did not seem con- 
tent unless I kept with him in the interval be- 
tween the services. He heard my childish talk 



EPISODES AND ANECDOTES 9? 

with patient love, and repaid it with gracious in- 
struction. On three successive days he taught me 
and prayed with me, and before he had to leave, 
my grandfather had come back from the place 
where he had gone to preach, and all the family 
were gathered to morning prayer. Then, in the 
presence of them all, Mr. Knill took me on his 
knee, and said, 'This child will one day preach the 
gospel, and he will preach it to great multitudes. 
I am persuaded that he will preach in the chapel of 
Rowland Hill, where (I think he said) I am now 
the minister. ' He spoke very solemnly, and called 
upon all present to witness what he said. Then 
he gave me sixpence as a reward if I would learn 
the hymn 

" ' God moves in a mysterious way 
His wonders to perform.' " 

"I was made to promise that when I preached in 
Rowland Hill's Chapel chat hymn should be sung. 
Think of that as a promise from a child! Would it 
ever be other than an idle dream? Years flew by. 
After I had begun for some little time to preach in 
London, Dr. Alexander Fletcher was engaged to 
deliver the annual sermon to children in Surrey 
Chapel; but, as he was taken ill, I was asked in a 
hurry to preach to the children in his stead. ' Yes, ' 
I replied, 'I will, if you will allow the children to 
sing, "God moves in a mysterious way." I have 
made a promise long ago that that hymn should be 
sung.' And so it was. I preached in Rowland 
Hill's Chapel, and the hymn was sung. My emo- 



98 SPURGFCN 

tions on that occasion I cannot describe, for the 
word of the Lord's servant was fulfilled. Still I 
fancy that Surrey was not the chapel which Mr. 
Knill intended. How was I to go to the country 
chapel? All unsought by me, the minister at Wot- 
ton-under-Edge, which was Mr. Hill's summer 
residence, invited me to preach there. I went on 
the condition that the congregation should sing, 
'God moves in a mysterious way' — which was also 
done. To me it was a very wonderful thing, and 
I no more understood at that time how it came to 
pass than I understand to-day why the Lord should 
be so gracious to me." 

MR. SPURGEON AND HIS GRANDFATHER TAKE TURNS 
AT PREACHING A SERMON 

Mr. Spurgeon always rejoiced that he and all his 
house were faithful to the doctrines of grace. One 
of his favorite texts was from Paul's epistle to the 
Ephesians: "For by grace are ye saved through 
faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of 
God." Not once or twice or thrice, but a thou- 
sand times and more, has Mr. Spurgeon preached 
from this text. One of these occasions is marked 
by a unique order that must have been highly in- 
teresting to those present. But Mr. Spurgeon 
shall tell the story in his own words: "Within 
the circle of these words 'By grace are ye saved, ' 
my theology is contained, so far as it refers to the 
salvation of men. I rejoice also to remember that 
those of my family who were ministers of Christ 



EPISODES AND ANECDOTES 99 

before me preached this doctrine, and none other. 
My father, who is still able to bear his personal 
testimony for his Lord, knows no other doctrine, 
neither did his father before him. 

"I am led to remember this by the fact that a 
somewhat singular circumstance, recorded in my 
memory, connects this text with myself and my 
grandfather. It is now long years ago. I was 
announced to preach in a growing country town 
in the eastern counties. It does not often hap- 
pen to me to be behind time, for I feel that punct- 
uality is one of those little virtues which may pre- 
vent great sins. But we have no control over 
railways and break-downs; and so it happened 
that I reached the appointed place at Haverhill 
considerably behind time. Like sensible people, 
they had begun their worship, and had proceeded 
as far as the sermon. As I neared the chapel, I per- 
ceived that someone was in the pulpit preaching, 
and who should the preacher be but my dear and 
venerable grandfather! He saw me as I came in 
at the front door and made my way up the aisle, 
and at once he said, 'Here comes my grandson! 
He may preach the gospel better than I can, but 
he cannot preach a better gospel ; can you, Charles ? ' 
As I made my way through the throng, I answered, 
'You can preach better than I can. Pray go on.' 
But he would not agree to that. I must take the 
sermon, and so I did, going on with the subject 
there and then, just where he left off. 'There,' 
said he, 'I was preaching on "For by grace are ye 



IOO SPURGEON 

saved," I have been setting forth the source and 
fountain-head of salvation; and lam now showing 
them the channel of it, "through faith." Now, you 
take it up, and go on. ' I am so much at home 
with these glorious truths, that I could not feel 
any difficulty in taking from my grandfather the 
thread of his discourse, and joining my thread to 
it, so as to continue without a break. Our agree- 
ment in the things of God made it easy for us to 
be joint-preachers of the same discourse. I went 
on with 'through faith,' and then I proceeded to 
the next point, 'and that not of yourselves. ' Upon 
this I was explaining the weakness and inability of 
human nature, and the certainty that salvation 
could not be of ourselves, when I had my coat- 
tail pulled, and my well-beloved grandsire took 
his turn again. When I spoke of our depraved 
human nature, the good old man said, 'I know 
most about that, dear friends;' and so he took up 
the parable, and for the next five minutes set forth 
a solemn and humbling description of our lost 
estate, the depravity of our nature, and the spirit- 
ual death under which we were found. When he 
had said his say in a very gracious manner, his 
grandson was allowed to go on again, to the dear 
old man's great delight; for now and then he would 
say, in a gentle tone, 'Good! Good!' Once he said, 
'Tell them that again, Charles,' and of course I 
did tell them that again. It was a happy exercise 
to me to take my share in bearing witness to truths 
of such vital importance, which are so deeply im- 



EPISODES AND ANECDOTES IOI 

pressed upon my heart. While announcing this 
text I seem to hear that dear voice, which has 
been so long lost to earth, saying tome, 'Tell 
them that again. ' I am not contradicting the 
testimony of forefathers who are now with God. 
If my grandfather could return to earth, he would 
find me where he left me, steadfast in the faith, 
and true to that form of doctrine which was once 
for all delivered to the saints. 

"I preach the doctrines of grace because I believe 
them to be true; because I see them in the Script- 
ures; because my experience endears them to me; 
and because I see the holy result of them in the 
lives of believers. I confess they are none the less 
dear to me because the advanced school despises 
them; their censures are to me a commendation. 
I confess also that I should never think the better 
of a doctrine because it was said to be 'new.' 
Those truths which have enlightened so many ages 
appear to me to be ordained to remain throughout 
eternity. The doctrine which I preach to you is 
that of the Puritans; it is the doctrine of Calvin, 
the doctrine of Augustine, the doctrine of Paul, the 
doctrine of the Holy Ghost. The Author and 
Finisher of our faith himself taught most blessed 
truth which well agreed with our text. The doc- 
trine of grace is the substance of the testimony of 
Jesus." 

THE MESSAGE ON MIDSUMMER COMMON 

The pastor of the Tabernacle was a Puritan in 



102 SPURGEON 

heart, in method, and often in experience. It was 
no uncommon thing for Cromwell and Bunyan and 
George Fox to hear, or seem to hear, voices in the 
important periods of their history, urging them along 
the path they ought to tread. Such an experience 
Mr. Spurgeon describes as occurring in connection 
with the important question of a collegiate educa- 
tion. He too, heard, or seemed to hear, a voice. 
He says: — 

"Still holding to the idea of entering the colle- 
giate institution, I thought of writing and making 
an immediate application; but this was not to be. 
That afternoon, having to preach at a village 
station, I walked slowly, in a meditating frame of 
mind, over Midsummer Common to the little 
wooden bridge which leads to Chesterton, and in 
the midst of the common I was startled by what 
seemed to me to be a loud voice, but which may 
have been a singular illusion: whichever it was, 
the impression it made on n^ mind was most vivid. 
I seemed very distinctly to hear the words, 'Seek- 
est thou great things for thyself? Seek them not!' 
This led me to look at my position from a different 
point of view, and to challenge my motives and 
intentions. I remembered my poor but loving 
people to whom I ministered, and the souls which 
had been given me in my humble charge; and 
although at that time I anticipated obscurity and 
poverty as the result of the resolve, yet I did there 
and then renounce the offer of collegiate instruc- 
tion, determining to abide for a season, at least, 



EPISODES AND ANECDOTES IO3 

with my people, and to remain preaching the Word 
so long as I had strength to do it. Had it not 
been for those words, I had not been where I am 
now. Although the ephod is no longer worn by a 
ministering priest, the Lord guides His people ' by 
His wisdom, and orders all their paths in love; 
and in times of perplexity, by ways mysterious 
and remarkable, He says to them: 'This is the 
way; walk ye in it.'" 

MR. SPURGEON IN THE COLISEUM 

Mr. Spurgeon was quite a favorite speaker on 
the platform of the British and Foreign Bible Soci- 
ety. In this great work he was heart and soul with 
the Church of England. On one of these occasions 
he prefaced his address by relating an incident 
which occurred to him three years previously, which 
is as follows. Sitting in the Coliseum at Rome 
with two or three friends, he said: 

"Is it not glorious to look at this old ruin and 
see how Christ has conquered here; how all these 
ruins tell what desolations He hath made in the 
earth; how He breaketh the bow and scattereth 
the spear in sunder? So I said, 'Let us have a 
tune,' and we sang the verse, — 

" 'Jesus' tremendous name 

Has put our foes to flight; 
Jesus, the meek, the humble lamb, 
A lion is in fight.' 

Up came two strangers, and said, 'What is that 
you are singing? Let us join you.' One was an 
American and the other an English clergyman, and 
we sang together the next verse, — 



104 SPURGEON 

" * By all hell's host withstood, 

We all hell's host o'erthrow; 
And conquering them through Jesus' blood, 
We still to conquer go.' 

And so we shall mark our track by the ruin of 
our adversaries; they shall only be remembered 
by the place which they once inhabited, which shall 
be a desolation and the habitation of the bittern 
for ever and ever." 

THE CABMAN AND THE NEW TESTAMENT 

"I have very seldom found it to be a lost thing 
to give a present of a Testament. I was greatly 
astonished about a month ago. A cabman drove 
me home, and when I paid him his fare, he said: 
'A long time since I drove you last, sir!' 'But,' 
said I, 'I do not recollect you!' 'Well,' he said, 
'I think it is fourteen years ago; but,' he said, 
'perhaps you will know this Testament!' pulling 
one out of his pocket. 'What, ' I said, 'did I give 
you that?' 'Oh, yes,' he said, 'and you spoke to 
me about my soul, and nobody had done that 
before, and I have never forgotten it. ' 'What, ' 
said I, 'haven't you worn it out?' 'No,' he said, 'I 
would not wear it out; I have had it bound!' — and 
he had kept it very carefully indeed." 

HOW THE APPLE GOT INTO THE BOTTLE 

We remember well, in our early days, seeing 
upon our grandmother's mantel-shelf an apple con- 
tained in a phial. This was a great wonder to us, 
and we tried to investigate it. Our question was, 
'How came the apple to get inside so small a bot- 



EPISODES AND ANECDOTES IO5 

tie?' The apple was quite as big round as the 
phial: by what means was it placed within it? 
Though it was treason to touch the treasures on 
the mantel-piece, we took down the bottle, and 
convinced our youthful mind that the apple never 
passed through its neck; and, by means of an 
attempt to unscrew the bottom, we became equally 
certain that the apple did not enter from below. 
We held to the notion that by some occult means 
the bottle had been made in two pieces, and after- 
ward united in so careful a manner that no trace 
of the join remained. We were hardly satisfied 
with the theory, but, as no philosopher was at hand 
to suggest any other hypothesis, we let the matter 
rest. One day the next summer we chanced to 
see upon a bough another phial, the first cousin of 
our old friend, within which was growing a little 
apple which had been passed through the neck of 
the bottle while it was extremely small. 'Nature 
well known, no prodigies remain;' the grand secret 
was out. We did not cry, 'Eureka! Eureka!" but 
we might have done so if we had then been versed 
in the Greek tongue. 

"This discovery of our juvenile days shall serve 
for an illustration at the present moment. Let us 
get the apples into the bottle while they are little: 
which, being translated, signifies, let us bring the 
young ones into the house of God, by means of 
the Sabbath school, in the hope that in after days 
they will love the place where His honor dwelleth, 
and there seek and find eternal life. By our mak- 



106 SPURGEON 

ing the Sabbath dreary, many young minds may 
be prejudiced against religion. We would do the 
reverse. Sermons should not be so long and dull 
as to weary the young folk or mischief will come 
of them; but with interesting preaching to secure 
attention, and loving teachers to press home the 
truth upon the youthful heart, we shall not have 
to complain of the next generation." 

THE EVANGELICAL MAGAZINE 

"In this best parlor grandfather would usually 
sit on Sunday mornings, and prepare himself for 
preaching. I was put into the room with him that 
I might be quiet, and, as a rule, 'The Evangelical 
Magazine' was given me. This contained a por- 
trait of a reverend divine, and one picture of a 
mission-station. Grandfather often requested me 
to be quiet, and always gave as a reason that I 
'had the magazine. ' I did not at the time per- 
ceive the full force of the argument to be derived 
from that fact; but no doubt my venerable relative 
knew more about the sedative effect of the maga- 
zine than I did. I cannot support his opinion 
from personal experience. Another means of still- 
ing 'the child' was much more effectual. I was 
warned that perhaps grandpa would not be able 
to preach if I distracted him, and then — ah, then 
what would happen, if poor people did not learn 
the way to heaven ? This made me look at the 
portrait and the missionary-station once more. 
Little did I dream that some other child would 



EPISODES AND ANECDOTES IO7 

one day see my face in that wonderful Evangelical 
portrait-gallery. " 

HOW MR. SPURGEON FIRED ALL HIS GUNS AT SEVEN 
PEOPLE 

"I was invited a good many years ago to preach 
at Isleham in Cambridgeshire. My brother Aldis, 
I think it was, preached in the afternoon, and I 
was to preach in the evening. The people at Isle- 
ham had such a belief that I should draw a congre- 
gation that they went and borrowed the biggest 
chapel in the place. I shall never forget it, because 
I preached that morning at eleven o'clock to seven 
persons. That was all I had, and I remember 
that I told them it reminded me of the ducks. 
Did you ever see ducks go through a door? You 
never did see a duck go through a door without 
ducking his head. They will do it even when they 
go through a barn door. The door may be twenty" 
feet high, but a duck never goes through without 
putting his head down, for fear he might possibly 
hit the top of the door. So I said, 'You were so 
afraid of your place being overcrowded that you 
borrowed that big place for seven people. ' I 
preached that morning, and the brother who 
preached in the afternoon said to me, T can't think 
how you did it. You were as earnest and preached 
as well as if you had had the place full. ' Yes, I 
thought that it was the only chance of getting it 
full in the evening when I had to preach again. So 
I thought I would just lay all my guns out and fire 
7 . 



108 SPURGEON 

away with these few people. In the afternoon we 
had a very decent audience of perhaps a hundred 
or a hundred and fifty, but when I preached at 
night there was not standing room in the place." 



"your money or your life" 

On the 3rd, 4th, and 5th of January, 1882, a great 
bazaar was held in the lecture hall of the Taber- 
nacle, which in three days realized the sum of 
£2,000 for the Girls' Orphanage. At the opening 
of this bazaar, Mr. Spurgeon, in the course of his 
speech, said, "When I was in Paris a short time 
since, I saw no end of things — a whole Palais 
Royale full of gewgaws and decorations. The 
only article I bought was a rat-trap. I happen to 
have some rats, and I saw quite a new sort of trap 
there, which the English rats don't know. I bought 
it out of love for them, and I hope they will find 
it useful. Doubtless you may all manage to buy 
here something that may be useful to you, and if 
you buy an article that is not useful, put it out of 
sight. We don't want to sell anything that is not 
worth the money paid for it ; for we think that 
such should not be the case when the object is to 
benefit orphan children. When you leave here, 
you need not be in the plight of the gentleman who 
was met by footpads on his way home. 'Your 
money or your life, ' demanded one of them. 'My 
dear fellow, I have not a farthing about me. Do 
you know where I have been?' asked the gentle- 
man. T have been to a bazaar.' 'Oh, if you've 



EPISODES AND ANECDOTES 109 

been to a bazaar, we should not think of taking 
any money from you. We'll make a subscription 
all round, and give you something to help you 
home.' That is a bazaar as it ought not to be." 

MR. SPURGEON AND THE SAILORS 

"I venture to think," says Mr. Mathews of the 
Sailors' Home, "the Metropolitan Tabernacle had 
more sailors and sailor workers to this service than 
ever before. The good manager of the Sailors' Home 
sent up two wagon-loads, while Miss Macpherson's 
lady friends marched at the head of a splendid col- 
umn of hardy, well-dressed sailors. Very few ports 
of the world were unrepresented, while captains, 
officers, and missionaries helped to fill the first gal- 
lery. Much prayer had been offered and enthusi- 
asm awakened by Mr. Spurgeon having promised 
to preach a sailors' sermon. At seven he came 
down to his quarter-deck looking careworn and 
overworked, as though he had been watching a 
week in the Channel. But as he looked at his crew 
on the starboard and port sides inspiration came, 
and the buoyancy of his spirit returned. 

"The intercessory prayer for those at sea and 
those on shore waiting for missing ships, led many 
hearts to the throne of grace. As to the sermon, 
having graduated in God's university, the sea, with 
wind and wave, rock and sand, sun and star, for 
my professors, I would, as a qualified judge, pro- 
nounce it A 1 at Lloyd's. It was simply first- 
rate, and worthy of the great preacher and his 
glorious theme, 'The sea is His, and He made it.'" 



IIO SPURGEON 

THE COMFORTABLY MISERABLE 

"I once had a letter from one who told me that 
he came to the Tabernacle, but as soon as he 
entered he felt it could not be the house of God 
because there were so many present, and 'strait 
is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto 
life, and few there be that find it. ' When he 
looked at me he felt sure that I was unsound, for 
I should not look so cheerful in the face, neither 
should I be so bulky in person, if I belonged to the 
tried people of God. Worst of all, when he looked 
round upon the congregation and saw their happy 
countenances, he said to himself: 'These people 
know nothing about the depravity of their hearts 
or the inward struggles of believers. ' Then he in- 
formed me that he wended his way to a very small 
chapel, where he saw a minister who looked as if 
he had been in the furnace, and though there were 
but eight persons present, they all looked so de- 
pressed that he felt quite at home. I suppose he 
sat down and sang:- — 

" ' My willing soul would stay 
In such a frame as this, 
And sit and sing herself away 
From everything like bliss.' " 

"I felt glad that the good man was enabled to 
enjoy a little comfortable misery with his brethren. 
I did not feel at all envious; nor do I think that 
such a ministry of misery will ever draw to itself a 
number that no man can number. The children 
of light prefer the joy of the Lord, for they find it 
to be their strength." 



EPISODES AND ANECDOTES I 1 1 

HOW THREE SINNERS KEPT THE GARDEN 

Mr. Spurgeon loved his garden. His fancies 
were as charming as the exotics themselves. His 
sallies in the garden were sometimes inimitable. 
"Are you ever troubled by these sinless people?" 
he said to me one day. "We have a nest of them 
here, and the craze had got in among the gar- 
deners. I called up my three gardeners on Satur- 
day week, and said to them, 'I have been observ- 
ing you for some time. You come late and go 
early, and, in the interval, you spoil my shrubs. 
I don't want your services any more. I will have 
my garden attended to by sinners for the future.'" 
And he added quietly, "I have now three sinners, 
and they are doing my garden beautifully." 

"i'm glad you did not try it on any of the 
deacons" 

"I was a member of the church at Newmarket 
when I first joined the church, and was afterward 
transferred to the church at Cambridge, one of the 
best in England. I attended for three Lord's days 
at the communion, and nobody spoke to me. I 
sat in a pew with a gentleman, and when I got 
outside I said, 'My dear friend, how are you?' 

"He said, 'You have the advantage of me; I 
don't know you.' „ 

"I said, 'I don't think I have, for I don't know 
you. But when I came to the Lord's table and 
partook of the memorials of His death, I thought 
you were my brother, and I thought I would speak 
to you. ' 



I 1 2 SPURGEON 

"I was only sixteen years of age, and he said. 
'Sweet simplicity 

"'Oh, is it true, sir?' I said; 'is it true?' 

"He said, 'It is; but I am glad you did not try 
it on any of the deacons. ' He asked me home to 
tea. 

"I said I could not come that day; and he said, 
'Come next Sunday, if you like. ' I agreed, and 
for three years I was often in his house. 

THE TEXT IN THE SHOEMAKER'S WINDOW 

"In the year 1854, when I had scarcely been in 
London twelve months," says Mr. Spurgeon, "the 
neighborhood was visited by Asiatic cholera, and 
my congregation suffered from its inroads. Family 
after family summoned me to the bedside of the 
smitten, and almost every day I was called to visit 
the grave. I gave myself up with youthful ardor 
to the visitation of the sick, and was sent for from 
all corners of the district by persons of all ranks 
and religions. I became weary in body and sick at 
heart. My friends seemed falling one by one, and 
I felt or faniced that I was sickening like those 
around me. A little more work and weeping would 
have laid me low among the rest. I felt that my 
burden was heavier than I could bear, and I was 
ready to sink under it. As God would have it. 
I was returning mournfully home from a funeral, 
when my curiosity led me to read a paper which 
was wafered up in a shoemaker's window in the 
Dover Road. It did not look like a trade an- 



EPISODES AND ANECDOTES 113 

nouncement, nor was it; for it bore in a good bold 
handwriting these words: 'Because thou hast 
made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the Most 
High, thy habitation, there shall no evil befall 
thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy 
dwelling. ' The effect upon my heart was immedi- 
ate. Faith appropriated the passage as her own. 
I felt secure, refreshed, girt with immortality. I 
went on with my visitation of the dying in a calm 
and peaceful spirit; I felt no fear of evil, and I 
suffered no harm. The Providence which moved 
the tradesman to place those verses in his window 
I gratefully acknowledge, and in the remembrance 
of its marvelous power I adore the Lord my God." 



Mr. Spurgeon took a great fancy to those peri- 
patetic venders of vegetables with which London 
and its suburbs abound, known as "costermon- 
gers." They are a merry, witty race of hearty 
good fellows, very sensitive to any sign of kind- 
ness. Mr. Spurgeon invited the costermongers of 
South London to a supper in the school-room of 
the Tabernacle, after which he gave them one of 
his characteristic addresses, finding in their peculiar 
calling ample illustrations of the truths he tried to 
enforce. One of this fraternity, talking of the 
meeting afterward, seemed to think that in Mr. 
Spurgeon their particular profession had lost a 
brilliant member. 

"Wot a woice he's got! I never!" observed the 



114 SPURGEON 

admiring costermonger. "Wot a woice! I tell 
yer, he'd a made a wery fine coster he would, and 
no bloomin' error!" 

Mr. Spurgeon's voice was indeed a charm, and 
the common people heard it gladly. 

SPURGEON'S JOKE WITH THE PLYMOUTH BROTHER 

In the year 1880 Mr. Spurgeon took a very 
active part in politics, to the surprise of many of 
his more sedate brethren. He tells the following 
story of this period: 

"I had to preach for my good old friend John 
OfTord, who was half a Plymouth brother and half 
a Baptist. I said to him, 'I should have been here 
half an hour sooner, only I stopped to vote. ' 

" 'My dear friend, ' he said, 'I thought you were 
a citizen of the New Jerusalem, and not of this 
world. ' 

" 'So I am, ' I replied, 'but I have an old man in 
me yet, and he is a citizen of the world. ' 

" 'But you ought to mortify him. ' 

"'So I do, for he's an old Tory and I make him 
vote Liberal.'" 

THE TEXT, THE SERMON, AND THE SMALL-POX 

As a sermonizer Mr. Spurgeon belonged to the 
old school, and he was sometimes a little severe on 
the method of making a sermon a religious essay 
that had very little to do with the text. He wanted 
the sermon to be always an elucidation of the text. 
On one occasion a student who had just delivered 



EPISODES AND ANECDOTES 1 1 5 

himself of one of these ornate essays, shorn of the 
old-fashioned "firstly, secondly and thirdly," and 
having little to do with the text, which had been 
used simply as a motto, asked Mr. Spurgeon for a 
candid criticism. There was little need to ask him 
to be candid, he was sure to be that. 

"Well," said Mr. Spurgeon, "your sermon was 
good and thoughtful, and safe, perfectly safe !" 

"Safe!" replied the student, "I don't quite un- 
derstand you, about the sermon being safe." 

"Oh, well, I mean this," was the answer, "your 
sermon had so little to do with your text, that if 
the text had had the small-pox, the sermon would 
not have caught it." 

MR. SPURGEON A MATCH FOR THE CUSTOM-HOUSE 
OFFICERS 

In the year 1885 Mr. Spurgeon was passing from 
France to Italy. When he reached the border the 
fussy Italian agents wanted to seize some fruit he 
had in his possession. A smile stole over Mr. 
Spurgeon's face. He knew it was utterly in vain 
to argue the point with them, and so he quietly 
withdrew three or four paces into French territory 
and, sitting down on his baggage, quietly ate the 
fruit in full view of the officials, who could do 
nothing but grind their teeth and use the choicest 
Italian. 

HOW THE BOY SPURGEON KILLED OLD RHODES 

One of the members of the church at Stam- 
bourne, named Rhodes, was in the habit of fre- 



Il6 SPURGEON 

quenting the public-house, greatly to the grief of 
his pastor. Little Charles had doubtless noticed 
his grandfather's sorrow on this account, and laid 
it to heart. One day he suddenly exclaimed, in 
the hearing of Mr. Spurgeon, "I'D kill old Rhodes, 
that I will!" '-Hush! hush! my dear," said his 
grandfather, "you mustn't talk so; it's very wrong, 
you know, and you'll get taken up by the police if 
you do anything wrong." "Oh, but I shall not do 
anything bad; but I'll kill him though, that I will." 
The good grandfather was puzzled, but yet per- 
fectly sure that the child would not do anything 
which he knew to be wrong, so he let it pass with 
some half-mental remark about "that strange 
child." Shortly after, however, the above conver- 
sation was brought to his mind bv the child com- 
ing in and saying, "I've killed old Rhodes; he'll 
never grieve my dear grandpa any more." "My 
dear child," said Mr. Spurgeon, "what have you 
done? Where have you been?" "I haven't been 
doing any harm, grandpa," said the child; "I've 
been about the Lord's work, that's all." Nothing 
more could be elicited from little Charles. Before 
long the mystery was explained. "Old Rhodes" 
called to see his pastor, and. with downcast looks 
and evident sorrow of heart, narrated the story of 
how he had been killed, somewhat in this fashion: 
"I'm very sorry indeed, my dear pastor, to have 
caused you such grief and trouble. It was very 
wrong, I know; but I always loved you, and 
wouldn't have done it if I'd only thought." En- 



EPISODES AND ANECDOTES II? 

couraged by Mr. Spurgeon 's kind words, he went 
on with his story thus: — "I was a-sitting in the 
public, just having my pipe and mug of beer, when 
that child comes in. To think an old man like me 
should be took to task and reproved by a bit of a 
child like that! Well, he points at me with his 
finger just so, and says, 'What doest thou here, 
Elijah? sitting with the ungodly, and you a mem- 
ber of a church, and breaking your pastor's heart! 
I'm ashamed of you! I wouldn't break my pastor's 
heart, I'm sure.' And then he walks away. 
Well, I did feel angry; but I knew it was all true, 
and I was guilty; so I put down- my pipe, and did 
not touch my beer, but hurried away to a lonely 
spot, and cast myself down before the Lord, con- 
fessing my sin and begging for forgiveness. And I 
do know and believe the Lord in mercy pardoned 
me; and now I've come to ask you to forgive me; 
and I'll never grieve you any more, my dear pas- 
tor." 

"reverend, right reverend, very reverend" 

Mr. Spurgeon has been handled severely by cer- 
tain ecclesiastics for refusing the prefix "Rev." 
Having received a letter addressed "To the Very 
Rev. C. H. Spurgeon," he replied: 

"I very much demur to the commencement, 'To 
the Very Reverend C. H. Spurgeon, ' for no rever- 
ence is due to me. Romaine used to say that it 
was very astonishing to observe how many Rever- 
end, Right Reverend, and Very Reverend sinners 



1 1 8 SPURGEON 

there were upon the face of the earth. Assuredly 
reverend and sinner make a curious combination, 
and as I know that I am the second, I repudiate 
the first. To me it is surprising that such a flat- 
tering title should have been invented, and more 
amazing still that good men should be found who 
are angry if this title be not duly given to them." 

Our American fondness for titles readily confers 
degrees on him. But thus he dashes the D. D.'s 
behind him: — 

"Many times we meet in American newspapers 
with our own name adorned or disfigured with a 
doctor's degree. In a periodical we see, month 
after month, an extract from 

"The Rev. C. H. Spurgeon, D. D. 

"We like the prefix quite as well as the affix ; 
that is to say, we detest them equally. Robert 
Robinson wrote in his journal: 'Wondered how 
any man could be so silly as to call me Reverend.' 
Shall we not all wonder, in some more rational 
condition of our brains, at a great many things 
which we now admire?" 

"god send me more leisure" 

"Turner, the artist, said to one who interrupted 
him with a question, 'There ! you have made me 
lose fifty guineas!' Sir Walter Scott says in his 
diary: 'Various visitors began to drop in. I was 
sick of these interruptions. God send me more 
leisure, and fewer friends to peck it away by tea- 
spoonfuls. ' Others besides Sir Walter have had 



EPISODES AND ANECDOTES 119 

to breathe this prayer. People call on a well- 
known minister . out of the idlest curiosity, and 
invent the most perverse excuses for dragging him 
away from his work. One would think we were 
wild beasts, to be stared at. Just as a sermon i s 
shaping itself, in comes a pasteboard from an old 
lady who has nothing on earth to do but to call 
round on everybody she knows, and rob them of 
their time, — wretched thief that she is. We have 
seen her; and lo! another knock. No message 
can be sent in, the party must see the minister 
himself, as his business is strictly private — that 
means begging. Here's another, whose pretended 
errand is to ask if we knew the Rev. Mr. Jones, of 
Llwwffi, for he was her mother's uncle's cousin by 
marriage. Why should we be thus at every mor- 
tal's beck and call, and have neither space for 
meditation, nor time for devotion? People do not 
call on doctors or lawyers at this rate, and our 
time is quite as precious as theirs. We cannot 
protect ourselves by fees, and yet if we do not see 
everyone, there will be such an outcry. All we 
can say is — they must cry, for we cannot neglect 
our Master's business to play lackey to everybody 
who is moved by the powers of darkness to call us 
away from the Word of God and prayer." 

THE DEAN STANLEY HOAX 

Mr. Spurgeon had been on more than one occa- 
sion the victim of a hoax. There are smart men 
in England as well as in America. Sometimes 



1 20 SPURGEON 

their arrows of smartness reach much further than 
they intend. A notable instance of this occurred 
early in Mr. Spurgeon's Tabernacle history. He 
received one day a letter from the late Dean Stan- 
ley, apologizing for his inability to dine with Mr. 
Spurgeon on a given date, closing with words of 
kindly Christian salutation, such as Dean Stanley 
would be sure to write. This letter from West- 
minster cloisters was quite a mystery to the non- 
conformist of Newington Butts, from the fact that 
he had not dreamed of sending the Dean any such 
invitation. Mr. Spurgeon's good mother- wit stood 
by him as it always did; he wrote a polite and 
friendly letter to the Dean, saying there must be 
some mistake, probably a hoax, as he had not 
written or instructed the writing of any such invi- 
tation. In closing, he said he could not apologize 
for what he had not done, and then, with a touch 
of humor, he slyly hinted that he half wished, as he 
came to think of it, that the whole thing was true. 
But the silly hoax did not end there. Dean Stan- 
ley replied, inviting Mr. Spurgeon to Westminster, 
and a friendship began that lasted to the end of 
Stanley's life; and there can be no doubt that 
if the Dean had been wholly free to follow the 
bent of his inclinations, he would have invited Mr. 
Spurgeon to preach in Westminster Abbey. 

SHORT PRAYERS ON A COLD NIGHT 

Mr. Spurgeon always had an aversion to long 
prayers. It was his invariable method to urge his 



EPISODES AND ANECDOTES 121 

brethren to be brief in prayer. On one very cold 
night he made the following special plea for brev- 
ity: 

"Now it is a cold night, and if anybody prays 
very long, somebody will be frozen to death. I 
remember that Paul preached a long sermon once, 
and a young man tumbled out of a window and 
killed himself. If anybody gets frozen to-night, I 
am not like Paul and cannot restore him; so please 
don't render a miracle necessary, as I cannot per- 
form it." 

A RAP AT THE DEACONS 

"I recollect being years ago in a church which 
was almost defunct externally, and altogether 
defunct internally, and after sermon, during which 
I felt a terrible chill of soul, I went into the vestry, 
and there I saw two important persons leaning 
heavily against the fire-place. I said to them, 
'Are you the deacons of the church?' They an- 
swered, 'Yes, sir.' I replied, 'I thought so!' I 
did not explain further. These pillars of the church 
evidently needed propping up. Sluggish ease will 
not do! Brethren, we must have life more abun- 
dantly, each one of us, and it must flow out into all 
the duties of our office: warm spiritual life must be 
manifest in the prayer, in the singing, in the preach- 
ing, and even in the shake of the hand and the 
good word after service. 



CHAPTER X 

PROVERBIAL PHILOSOPHY — THE SALT CELLARS 

" Good words are worth much and cost little." 

— George Herbert. 

" Because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people 
knowledge; yea, he gave good heed, and sought out, and set in or- 
der, many proverbs." — Solomon. 

In the year 1889 Mr. Spurgeon published two 
volumes entitled "Salt Cellars." They are com- 
posed of proverbs from all nations, set in order, 
and followed by racy comments almost as brief 
and generally more pungent than the proverbs 
themselves. These characteristic volumes are 
specially useful for their suggestiveness. Preach- 
ers, editors, authors, the wide world over, would 
find these "Salt Cellars" a perpetual help. In the 
preface to these gathered treasures of "Proverbial 
Philosophy" Mr. Spurgeon says: — 

For many years I have published a sheet alma- 
nac, intended to be hung up in workshops and 
kitchens. This has been known as "John Plough- 
man's Almanack," and has had a large sale. It has 
promoted temperance, thrift, kindness to animals, 
and a regard for religion, among working people. 
The placing of a proverb for every day for twenty 
years has cost me great ]abor, and I feel that I 

122 



PROVERBIAL PHILOSOPHY 1 23 

cannot afford to lose the large collection of sen- 
tences which I have thus brought together; yet 
lost they would be, if left to die with the ephemeral 
sheet. Hence these two volumes. They do not 
profess to be a complete collection of proverbs, but 
only a few out of many thousands. 

The salt of proverbs is of great service if dis- 
creetly used in sermons and addresses; and I 
have hope that these salt cellars of mine may be 
resorted to by teachers and speakers, and that 
they may find them helpful. There are many 
proverb books, but none exactly like these I 
have not followed any one of the other collections, 
although, of necessity, the most of the quaint say- 
ings are the same as will be found in them. Some 
of my sentences are quite new, and more are put 
into a fresh form. The careful omission of all 
that are questionable as to purity has been my 
aim; but should any one of them, unknown to me, 
have another meaning than I have seen in it, I 
cannot help it, and must trust the reader to accept 
the best and purest sense which it bears; for that 
is what it meant to me. It is a pity that the salt 
of a proverb should ever be unsavory; but, be- 
yond doubt, in several of the best collections, 
there are very questionable ones, which ought to 
be forgotten. It is better to select than indiscrimi- 
nately to collect. An old saying which is not clean 
ought not to be preserved because of its age; but 
it should, for that reason, be the more readily 
dropped, since it must have done harm enough 
8 



124 SPURGEON 

already, and the sooner the old rottenness is buried 
the better. 

My homely notes are made up, as a rule, of 
other proverbial expressions. They are intended 
to give hints as to how the proverbs may be used 
by those who are willing to flavor their speech 
with them. I may not, in every case, have hit 
upon the first meaning of the maxims; possibly, 
in some instances, the sense which I have put 
upon them may not be the general one; but the 
meanings given are such as they may bear without 
a twist, and such as commended themselves to 
me for general usefulness. The antiquary has not 
been the guide in this case, but the moralist and 
the Christian. 

From what sources I have gleaned these prov- 
erbs it is impossible for me to tell. They have 
been jotted down as they were met with. Having 
become common property, it is not easy to find 
out their original proprietors. If I knew where I 
found a pithy sentence, I would acknowledge the 
source most freely; but the gleanings of years, in 
innumerable fields, cannot now be traced to this 
literary estate or to that. In the mass, I confess 
that almost everything in these books is borrowed 
— from cyclopedias of proverbs, "garlands," alma- 
nacs, books, newspapers, magazines — from any- 
where and everywhere. A few proverbs I may 
myself have made, though even this is difficult; 
but, from the necessity of the case, sentences 
which have become proverbs are things to be 
quoted, and not to be invented. 



PROVERBIAL PHILOSOPHY 125 

A cat with a silver collar is none the better 
mouser. — Fine dress, learned degrees, high titles, 
and grand offices do not give ability. We have 
heard of doctors of divinity who were duller preach- 
ers than the generality of the clergy. 

A false tale is a nimble footman. — It runs every- 
where, and knocks at everybody's door long before 
the truth is out of bed. 

A fool's gun is soon fired. — He has little to say, 
but he is in a desperate hurry to say it. In olden 
times they said, "A fool's bolt is soon shot." 

A loose tooth and a fickle friend are two evils. 
— The sooner we are cleared of them the better; 
but who likes the wrench ? 

Always in a hurry, always behind. — A little 
punctuality would save life from being a worry, a 
flurry, a hurry, and a scurry. Half the ease of life 
oozes away through the leaks of unpunctuality. 

An ass may think he's Solomon; but he isn't. — 
"If a man think himself to be something when he 
is nothing, he deceiveth himself." 

Avoid the "Queen's Head" and comfort your 
wife's heart. 

A sermon's length is not its strength. — It may 
be very much its weakness. In this case brevity 
is a virtue. It is a pity to weary the head when 
we should win the heart. Some divines are long 
in their sermons because they are short in their 
studies. 

Be a man, and not a masher.— Don't want to 
know what this means; the subject is too insignifi- 
cant. 



126 SPURGEON 

Be chaste as a lily. — Never was this exhortation 
more needed than now when men are trying to 
legalize impurity. Young men, shun all unchas- 
tity! 

Bear the hen's cackle for the sake of the eggs. — 
Little annoyances must be put up with because of 
great advantages. 

Before you doctor others, try your own physic. — 
Especially if you try to teach the gospel. Never 
preach beyond your own experience. 

Before you hang up your hat, look at the peg. 
— See what sort of family you will be connected 
with by the marriage. Observe well your mother- 
in-law. 

Believe not half you hear, and repeat not half 
you believe. — My uncle used to say, "When you 
hear an ill report about anyone, halve it, and 
then quarter it, and then say nothing about the 
rest." 

Better give a shilling than lend half-a-crown. — 
You will save eighteen pence by the transaction. 

Bills look best receipted. — The queen's likeness 
on a receipt stamp is a cheering work of art when 
seen at the foot of an account. 

Busy tongues make idle hands. — It's woeful to 
have a house full of cacklers, and never an egg 
from the whole of them. While they talk about 
everything, they do nothing. 

Buy not on trust; down with the dust. — A shop- 
keeper's sign in China bore the inscription: "No 
credit; we have learned wisdom from former cus- 
tomers." 



Proverbial philosophy 127 

Buy one fine thing and you must buy ten more. 
— Thus the piano on the hire system leads to no 
end of purchases, and the family is impoverished. 

A man in debt is caught in a net. — Some never 
get out of it: they do not pay anyone, and yet 
they live on, like Tom Farbehind, of whom we 
read: — 

"His last debt's paid, poor Tom's no more. 
Last debt! Tom never paid a debt before." 

A man is known by the company he shuns, — ■ 
Quite as much as by the company he keeps. 

A man is not bad because a viper bites him. — 
Excellent persons are liable to be assailed by ma- 
licious slanderers, who, because of their serpent 
nature, take delight in attacking the good. An 
apostle once had a viper fasten upon his hand, but 
he shook it off into the fire, and it did him no harm. 

A man is only the head, a good wife is the 
crown. — Solomon is our authority for this. — Pro v. 
xii: 4. 

A man may be a fool and not know it. — Indeed 
it is generally the case that he is not aware of his 
own folly. If he did know it, he would not be a 
fool any longer. 

A man may be a great divine and yet have no 
religion. 

A man may dig his grave with his teeth. — Glut- 
tons, bon vivants, and even careless eaters may 
commit suicide while eating. 

A man may drown himself in a quart pot.— 
Have you not seen it done ? 



128 SPURGEON 

A man may tell a lie till he believes it. — And 
this is often done. We have heard persons tell 
tales which we are sure are not true. Those stories 
have altered year after year, to our knowledge, but 
the narrators are quite sure of their accuracy. 
They have told the story so often that they have 
persuaded themselves into a firm faith in it. 

A man may threaten and yet be afraid. 

Buy the best. Things may cost less, and be 
worthless. — Horrible cheapness is ruining both 
buyer, seller, and producer. If we get things for 
less money, there is less material or less work in 
them. 

Better be new-born than high-born. — The re- 
generate possess a nobler nature than the proudest 
of earth's nobility if they are not born from above. 

Better nail your heart to the Cross than your 
ears to the pulpit. — That is to say, true love to 
Jesus is better than slavishly following an}' human 
preacher, and accepting all that he may say. 

Call me, and I'll call thee. — Puff me, and I'll 
puff thee. Mutual-admiration societies are very 
common. Some seem to be in league to support 
each other's falsehoods. 

Day of rest, of days the best. — A poet calls the 
Sabbath, "Heaven once a week." 

Dirt cheap is generally dear dirt. — We pay less 
and get less. Modern cheap things are often mere 
rubbish, "made to sell," or stained with the blood 
of the poor worker. 

Don't burn your lips with other men's broth. — - 



PROVERBIAL PHILOSOPHY I 29 

If you get sipping a little with them, and mixing 
up with their affairs, you will come in for a share 
of their trouble when it is served out hot to them. 

Don't go to sea in an egg-shell. — Trust only in 
that which is worthy of trust; do not risk your 
money on a bubble scheme, nor your soul on a 
novel doctrine. 

Earn all you can; save all you can; give all you 
can. — This, I think, was John Wesley's saying. 
It embodies much of his shrewd sense and conse- 
cration. Some take firstly and secondly, but 
thirdly is too much for them; giving goes against 
the grain. 

Great bodies move slowly. — It must be so. 
Hence the difficulty of moving a corporation, a 
parliament, or a committee. 

Law is a bottomless pit; keep far from it. — 
Therefore, "agree with thine adversary quickly" or 
thou and he may both be in the abyss. "The suit 
is ended," said the lawyer; "both parties are 
cleaned out." 

Be in the right way, but be in nobody's way. 

Be it weal or be it woe, 
It will not evermore be so. 

Our condition will change and this is a good rea- 
son why we should neither presume on the pres- 
ent, nor despair concerning it. 

"The world goes up, and the world goes down, 
And the sunshine follows the rain; 
And yesterday's sneer, and yesterday's frown, 
Can never come over again." — C. Kingsley. 

Be just to all, but trust not all. — It would bs 



1 30 SPURGEON 

unjust not to trust some; it would be unwise to 
trust many. 

Be kind to mankind. — We are all of a kind, all 
of kin, or say, all kinned, and therefore we should 
be kind to each other. 

Be kind to your horse, for it cannot complain: 
Be tender when using the whip or the rein. 

There is a special venom in cruelty to dumb ani- 
mals. Their silence should be eloquent with every 
heart. 

Be low in humility and high in hope. — He who 
will not bend his head in humility will run against a 
beam, he that will not hold up his head in hopeful- 
ness will not be cheered by an early sight of the 
good which is waiting for him. 

Be low, or you will be sent below. — Many have 
had "with shame to take the lowest room," because 
they would push themselves forward where they 
had no right to be. 

Who wrongly takes the highest place 
Shall be sent down with much disgrace. 

Be merrily wise and wisely merry. — It is to be 
done, though it will need prudence and prayer. 

Be neither careworn nor careless. 

Be no time-server, and yet serve your times. — 
As David served his generation by the will of God, 
so should we; but this is a very different thing 
from standing cap in hand to curry favor with 
those who for a while are in power. 

Everyone thinks his own sack to be the heavi- 
est. — Each one thinks his lot the worst; but he is 



PROVERBIAL PHILOSOPHY I3I 

mistaken. If he thought himself the worst of the 
lot he might be right. 

Everyone will be thy friend 
Whilst thou hast wherewith to spend; 
But if store or crowns be scant, 
No man will supply thy want. 

We fear this is too often the fact; but assuredly 
it is not always so, nor is it often so with gracious 
men. 

Every path hath its puddle. — No man's life is 
quite beyond rebuke: no man's course is without 
its difficulties and sorrows. 

Every pea helps to fill the sack. — Every wor- 
shiper increases the congregation, every member 
helps to make up the church, every penny enlarges 
the collection. 

Every peddler sells the very best pins. — At least 
he says so, and he ought to know. 

Every pig can grunt. — It needs no genius to 
grumble and find fault. He who can do nothing 
else is often great in this art. Let the creature 
grunt. 

Every poor man is a fool in the judgment of a 
fool. — The same fool considers every wealthy per- 
son to be a paragon of wisdom. The poorest 
twaddle is eloquence when it comes from a noble- 
man's mouth. Lord Fitznoodle is the patron 
saint of fools. 

Every potter praises his own pot. — If he does 
not do so, who will? Potters cannot afford to keep 
trumpeters, and therefore they praise their own 
wage. We all do so, more or less. This proverb 



132 SPURGEON 

often runs, "Every potter praises his own pot, 
and all the more if it is cracked." Does not self- 
praise imply a crack somewhere? 

Every question is not for me to answer. — If I 
attempt to do so I shall show 7 my ignorance. 
"Teach thy tongue to say 'I do not know,'" is a 
Talmudic proverb. 

Fire begins with little sparks: crime begins with 
evil thoughts. 

First come, first served. — A fair rule. No one 
ought to wish to go out of his turn at the expense 
of others, even though he may think himself a per- 
son of importance. 

First comes owing, and then comes lying. — For 
the debtor invents false excuses, and makes untruth- 
ful promises, so as to stave off the day of payment. 

First look up, and then lookout. — Look to God 
first, and then watch for every honorable oppor- 
tunity of getting on in business. 

First practice at home, then preach abroad. — It 
is not every man that would like to preach to his 
neighbors from his own door-step. 

First the distiller, then the doctor, then the 
undertaker. 

First thrive, then wive, then strive. 

First understand, and then undertake. — It is the 
height of folly to undertake a matter of which you 
do not know the ins and outs. Many have burnt 
their fingers with such blind agreements. Never 
sign what you have not seen. 

Fish bred in dirty pools w T ill surely taste of r- "\. 



PROVERBIAL PHILOSOPHY I 33 

—I remember having received, as a present, some 
fine carp taken from the village pond. To put the 
knife into them was quite enough for me: a friend 
who ate of them was seriously ill. The fish had 
lived upon the filth of the parish, and could not 
be clean eating. Those who are bred in vice are 
sure to show it in their character. 

Fit words are fine; but often fine words are not 
fit. — If the language is suitable to express the 
truth, it is everything. Sometimes grand oratory 
is great absurdity. 

Flattery is pap for fools. 

'Tis an old maxim of the schools 
That flattery's the food of fools; 
And whoso likes such airy meat, 
Will soon have nothing else to eat. 

Be deaf with one ear, and blind with one eye. — 
Some things it is well neither to hear nor see. 
Discretion will tell us when to be observantly 
blind, and forgetfully deaf. 

Be good, and then do good. — You cannot really 
do more than you are. 

Be good, get good, and do good. — Do all the 
^ood you can; to all the people you can; in all 
the ways you can; as often as you can; and as 
long as you can. 

Be good, or it will not be good to be. — Without 
grace in the heart, it were better for that man that 
he had never been born. Even for this world he 
who does no good dies "much unlamented." 

Be good within; do good without. — When a 
candle is alight within a lantern it sheds a light all 



134 SPURGEON 

around: but if the lantern be dark within it is of 
no use to those outside. It is the same with men. 
Have light in yourselves. 

Be hardy, but not hard. — Endure hardship your- 
self; but do not become unkind to others because 
you are strong and can rough it. A hardy man 
with a tender heart is a beautiful character; but 
an unfeeling tyrant is a curse to his household. 

Be honest, and thus outwit the rogues. — Honesty 
perplexes the cunning. They think you are prac- 
ticing some deep policy, and they are baffled. 

Be hospitable, but take nobody in. — In other 
words — Receive many, but deceive none. 

Be humble, or you'll stumble. — "Pride goeth 
before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a 
fall."— Prov. xvi: 18. 

Be in good spirits without ardent spirits. 

Be in the mill and expect to have flour on your 
coat. — Your associations in business and friendship 
will tell upon your reputation and character. 

Every monkey has his tricks. — Spoken of larkish 
fellows who annoy people with their follies. 

Everyone feels the cold according as he is clad. 
— Where the garments of faith and patience are 
worn, the Arctic winter of poverty is endured with- 
out harm; but trying circumstances freeze the life 
out of some men, because their religion is a dread- 
fully thin and flimsy fabric. 

Everyone for himself is the pig's doctrine. — 
And there are a great many believers in it. The 
worshipers of Number One are numerous, and 
enthusiastic. Self is the man! 



PROVERBIAL PHILOSOPHY 135 

As I walked by myself, I said to myself. 
And myself said again unto me: . 
" Look to thyself, take care of thyself, 
For nobody cares for thee." 

Everyone is wise after the business is over. — - 
This is the especial wisdom of the unwise. Yet 
we could all do much better if we had to do it over 
again: at least, we think so. We are fools enough 
to imagine that we should not be fools again ! 

Everyone must row with the oars he has. — 
This is wisdom. Instead of quarreling with our 
tools, let us do our best with them. Paddle your 
own canoe with such paddles as come to hand. 

Everyone takes his pleasure where he finds it. — 
Hence a man's pleasures become the index of his 
character. If he takes pleasure in sin, it is because 
he loves it. If he frequents the pit, it is because 
he is going there. 

Everyone thinks he could have done better. — 
Had he been consulted, mistakes would have been 
avoided, and grander results would have been ob- 
tained. Others may be all very well ; but we live 
at Nonsuch House, in the parish of Nonpareil. 

Every one to his liking, as the man said when 
he kissed his cow. — Happily, in this case, the kiss- 
ing would neither involve an action for assault, 
nor excite another man's jealousy concerning the 
lady. There is no accounting for tastes. 

Find you out your sins, or your sins will find 
out you. 

Fine birds are all the more likely to be plucked. 
— Pretty people are tempted, and great men are 
assailed. 



136 SPURGEON 

Fine clothes cannot hide the clown. — They far 
oftener betray him: he does not feel at home in 
them any more than a dog in a blanket, or a hog 
in armor. 

Fine feathers make fine birds. — Yet garments 
can only make a vain person what Masson calls "a 
decorated fool." A Puritanic student once called 
certain fine ladies "ambulating blocks for milli- 
nery." Well, dress as they may, it is, at least, a 
pity that they do not leave feathers to birds, and 
not murder our songsters to bedeck their own 
heads. 

Fine promises are frail securities. — That is to 
say, when they come from our fellow mortals. 
Many have been ruined by the rascality which 
promised, but never intended to perform. Such 
promises are solid lies: not so much falsehood in 
word as falsehood in fact. 

Fine stables do not make good horses. — A man 
may live in a college and be a dunce, or dwell 
under the eaves of the house of God and be an 
infidel. A villa may have a villain for its tenant, 
and a mansion may hold a lord without either 
manor or manners. Ecclesiastical architecture 
does not secure piety. Many a poor drone of a 
preacher has had the emptying of a fine Gothic 
edifice. 

Fine words have great weight with feeble minds. 

^-The authors of proverbs to this effect, of which 

there are very many, had evidently been misled by 

fine oratory, and at last arrived at the conclusion 



THE SALT CELLARS I 37 

that words are but air, and that there is no build- 
ing upon them. 

Finery is foolery. — A lady asked the Rev. John 
Newton what was the best rule for female dress 
and behavior. "Madam," said he, "so dress and 
so conduct yourself that persons who have been in 
your company shall not recollect what you had 
on." When so much is spent on dress that the 
house is impoverished the folly is extreme. It 
suggests the epigram — 

" What is the reason, can you guess, 

Why men are poor and women thinner? 
So much do they for dinner dress, 

There's nothing left to dress for dinner." 

He that a watch would wear, just this must do, 
Pocket his watch, and watch his pocket too. 

We have heard of one who covered his watch with 
fish-hooks; but the worst of it was that he only 
remembered what he had done when he put his 
own ringers into his watch-pocket. 

He that asks too much is likely to get nothing. 

He that burns most, shines most. — There must 
be a self-consumption to produce light. John was 
a burning and a shining light, and the burning is 
not to be separated from the shining. 

He that by the plow would thrive, 
Himself must either hold or drive. 

A living can be made by one who works himself, 
even where a gentleman farmer is a heavy loser. 
So we have heard. At any rate, if the farmer 
cannot live who drives the plow, how can he live 
who drives a fast-trotting mare? 



138 SPURGEON 

He that can be won with a feather will be lost 
with a straw.— Easily persuaded persons are no 
great catch, for no reliance can be placed upon 
them: they are soon led to the opposite side. 

He that cuts himself willfully deserves no salve. 

He that deals in dirt will not keep clean hands. 

He that delights to plant and set 
Puts coming ages in his debt. 

This, after all, is only justice; for we also eat 
of many trees which our fathers planted. 

He that deserves nothing should be content with 
anything. 

He that doth jest must take a jest; 
Or else to let alone were best. 

He that dwells in a city where there is a syna- 
gogue, and comes not to prayer there, is the per- 
son that deserves the name of a bad neighbor. — 
This is a saying of the Jews. But how many bad 
neighbors do we live among, who are seldom seen 
in the public assemblies of the saints from year to 
year! 

He means to buy, for he finds fault with the 
goods. — "It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer." 
Just because he means to be a buyer. 

He must be a wise man himself who can distin- 
guish one. — So said Diogenes and we will not 
contradict him. 

He pares his apple that would cleanly feed.— 
Well said, Mr. Herbert. Tell the story, if worth 
telling, but not with the oath or the smut — that 
can be left out with great advantage. 



THE SALT CELLARS 1 39 

He preaches well who lives well.-— Even if he 
does not open his mouth his example is a sermon. 

He promiseth to turn your iron into gold, but 
he will turn your gold into iron. — True of the gen- 
tleman who presents you with a prospectus of a 
company which is to pay a quite impossible divi- 
dend. No doubt the concern will pay those who 
get it up. 

He put his finger in the pie, and burned his nail 
off. 

He rides well who never stumbles. — Where is 
that man ? Where is his horse ? 

He runs far who never turns. — Unless he breaks 
his neck. He will run too far, if his way be not 
the right one. 

He shuts his eyes, and thinks none see. 

He talks much who has least to say. — "How 
would you wish your hair to be cut ?" asked the 
barber one day of Archelaus, king of Macedon, 
and the king made answer, "Silently." Alas! this 
is too rare a method anywhere, in anything. 

It was said of one man: — 

He argued with the greatest zest, 

'Twas very hard to put him out; 
And strange to say, he talked the best 

Of what he knew the least about. 

A loveless life is a living death. — For to love is 
to live. Our laureate says: — 

" 'Tis better to have loved and lost, 
Than never to have loved at all." 

A mad parson makes a mad parish. — For good 
or for bad the shepherd affects the flock. One 
? 



I 40 SPURGEON 

wonders if that clergyman was of this kind of whom 
we read that a thief stole his linen, and he offered 
a reward for the discovery of the offender, where- 
upon the following verse was written at the bot- 
tom of one of the bills: — 

" Some thief has stolen the parson's shirts; 
To skin nought could be nearer: 
The parish will give five hundred pounds 
To him who steals the wearer." 

A man beyond his line is never like to shine. — 
When the cobbler leaves his last he also quits his 
awl, and is all at sea. What can a man do well 
when he quits his own business and takes to an 
occupation of which he knows nothing? 

A man brings the stones, but the woman builds 
them into the wall. 

A man cannot prosper till he gets his wife's 
leave. — She must practice economy, or all his 
earnings will insensibly melt away. 

"A man may spare, 
And still be bare, 

If his wife be nowt, if his wife be nowt; 
But a man may spend, 
And have money to lend, 
If his wife be owt, if his wife be owt." 

A man had better have his hands in his own 
pockets than in other people's.— Persons usually 
put their hands into their pockets because there is 
nothing else there, and nature abhors a vacuum; 
but hands in another man's pocket are engaged in 
creating a vacuum, and that is a crime against 
both natural and national law. 

A man had need be a great philosopher to bear 
toothache patiently. 



THE SALT CELLARS I4I 

He is wise who follows the wise. 

He is wise who knows his own business. — He 
may not be a university man, but he knows enough 
to get through the universe. 

He knows the water best who has waded through. 
— There is nothing like personal experience. 

He laughs at scars who never felt a wound. — 
The power to sympathize can only come by per- 
sonal suffering. 

He laughs best who laughs last. — Because he 
will be surest of his laugh, and will probably laugh 
at those who laughed at him. If he can laugh 
when the whole thing is ended, he has the best 
cause for his merriment. 

He likes mutton too well who eats the wool. — ■ 
We are not bound to follow a man, faults and all. 

He lives longest who is awake most hours. — 
That is to say, if he is not kept awake by sickness, 
or care, or excessive labor; for these may shorten 
life though they add to the waking hours. Doubt- 
less early rising is a great addition to our oppor- 
tunities for work. 

He liveth long who liveth well. — Indeed the 
way to measure life is not by its years, but by its 
deeds. 

He looks as if butter would not melt in his 
mouth. — This is the sort of man whom you must 
never trust. 

He loses indeed who loses at last. 

He loses least in a quarrel who has had least to 
say in it. 



142 SPURGEON 

He may well swim who has his head held up. — . 
Just so ! We are able to swim the seas of tempta- 
tion only because grace keeps us from sinking. 

He may wisely run who finds he cannot stand 
his ground. 

He is a stupid who loses patience with a stupid. 
— "Ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are 
wise." — 2 Cor. xi: 12. We find out how foolish 
we are when a great stupid brushes our fur the 
wrong way, and raises our wrath. 

He is a weak friend who cannot bear with his 
friend's weakness. 

He is best who has done best, — With few excep- 
tions this is the rule. "By their fruits shall ye 
know them." — Matt, vii: 20. 

He is blind who thinks he sees everything. — The 
observant man recognizes many mysteries into 
which he cannot pretend to see, and he remembers 
that the world is too wide for the eye of any one 
man. But modern sophists are sure of everything, 
especially if it contradicts the Bible. 

He is free who dares to be 
In the right with two or three. 

This liberty has to be paid for; but there is a 
sweetness in it which those only know who have 
tasted it. 

He is kind to himself who is kind to his wife. — 
Is she not bone of your bone? Does not your hap- 
piness interweave itself with hers? 

He is no one's friend who is his own enemy. 

He is not the best carpenter who makes the most 



THE SALT CELLARS I 43 

chips. — But the reverse. He who does his work 
in a masterly manner is usually very neat and 
clean in it. The proverb, however, means that 
the best workers make no fuss, and create no dis- 
order. 

He is right sure who is surely right. 

He is very absent-minded who searches for the 
ass on which he is riding. — He must be brother to 
that other Celestial, who cried out, "Here's my 
bundle, here's my umbrella; but where am I?" 

He is very blind who cannot see the sun. — How 
blind must he be who cannot see the God who 
made the sun! 

He that is blind will nothing see, 
What light so e'er about him be. 

In showers, the umbrella at home is of no use. — 
It is like the Dutchman's anchor. When the 
storm came on he said that he had a first-rate 
anchor at home. 

In spending spare, 
Of debts beware. 

In talks prefer quality to quantity. — Don't utter 
sheer nonsense, such as Dr. Darwin alludes to in 
his lines: 

" Hear the pretty ladies talk, 
Tittle tattle, tittle tattle! 
Like their pattens when they walk, 
Pittle pattle, pittle pattle." 

In the coldest flint there is hot fire. — Persons 
who seem slow and patient have still a temper, 
and will fire up if too much provoked. Let us be 
careful not to arouse dormant passion. It's ill 
waking sleeping tigers. 



144 SPURGEON 

In the end things will mend. — Time sides with 
patience, heals sorrows, and moves difficulties; 
therefore let us "learn to labor and to wait." 

In the evening one may praise the day. — But it 
is well to see how things look as the hours pass 
away. Some acts which seemed to promise well 
at first may not in the long run turn out to be 
quite so wise as they looked. 

In the front they bear the brunt. — No one who 
considers his own ease or pleasure should desire 
to be a leading man: he is little more than the 
chief drudge, while he is supposed to be a king. 

In the wedding cake hope is the sweetest of the 
plums. 

In this life repentance is never too late. — On the 
other hand, it is never too soon. It is also to be 
remembered that God, who will accept late repent- 
ance, may never give it. 

In trade, competition prevents imposition. — No 
doubt the public are gainers, though tradesmen 
grumble. 

In every fault there is folly. It is always unwise 
to sin. 

In fair weather prepare for foul. — The beauty 
of our English weather is, that when it is bad, we 
may hope that it will soon change. Its fault is, 
that when it is good, we may be pretty sure it will 
soon alter. 

In for a penny, in for a pound. — It is so with a 
certain order of expenses: once begin and you 
must go on, and cannot pull up when you would. 



THE SALT CELLARS H5 

In giving and taking, 
It's easy mistaking. 

Therefore allowances should be made for error. 
Say not: "It is a fraud," but judge it to be amis- 
take. Count money twice, even after your own 
kin. Keep correct books. When you err your- 
self, let it be against yourself. 

In half the affairs of this busy life 
(As that same day I said to my wife), 
Our troubles come from trying to put 
The left-hand shoe on the right-hand foot. 

A little adjustment would save a world of trouble; 
but common sense is very uncommon sense. We 
put salt upon the plum-pudding and grumble at 
its taste; we mix the unsuitable, and the result is 
uncomfortable. 

In judging what a boy will be 
Mark what he is in infancy. 

For the child is the father of the man. Quick 
eyes may see the future life of the man in the 
little ways of the child. 

In law there's many a loss without a gain, but 
never a gain without a loss. 

In Orange everything grows except oranges. — A 
name is frequently a mere name. Orange is too 
cold a region for the orange tree: the province 
bears the name of the fruit it cannot grow. Some 
Christians have little that is Christian about them. 
Some "brethren" are sadly unbrotherly. Sur- 
names are said to go by contraries: "Mr. Make- 
peace was bred an attorney." 

In a calm sea we are all good sailors. — We sup- 



I 40 SPURGEON 

pose that we can endure trouble with great equa- 
nimity; but when it really comes, we are as much 
vexed by it as others are. 

In a fiddler's house one learns to dance. — The 
motion of the music makes the feet move almost 
involuntarily. When one gets into a family one 
is apt to fall into the ways of the house. 

In a large flock there will be one lame sheep. — 
Large families are seldom without one weak child. 
In religious communities we may look for a pro- 
portion of feeble souls. 

In a leopard we expect spots. — In irreligious 
men we look for ill habits, which could not be tol- 
erated in members of churches. 

In strangers' company beware; 

Of both thy tongue and purse take care. 

In a walking newspaper the leading article is 
scandal. — Our advice is — do not take it in, nor do 
anything else to increase the circulation of the red 
rag. 

In buying a horse expect to be sold. 

In choice of bride let grace preside. — We fear 
that as a rule nature has far more to do with it 
than grace. 

In company guard your tongue, in solitude your 
heart. — Our words need watching; but so also do 
our thoughts and imaginations, which grow most 
active when we are alone. 

In conduct don't make trifles of trifles. — Regard 
the smallest action as being either right or wrong 
and make a conscience of little things. 



THE SALT CELLARS 1 4? 

In deep waters men find great pearls. — Our 
worst troubles are often our greatest enrichments. 

In every beginning think of the end. — In that 
case many things would be quitted in their be- 
ginnings, for no one would wish to encounter the 
end. 

Ill in kits is worse in cats. — For old people to 
do wrong is inexcusable, but youth may be plead- 
ed as some little apology. 

Ill -matched horses draw badly. — If one pulls and 
the other jibs, it is a bad thing for the family 
coach. Husband and wife should be of one mind, 
and specially in religion. "Be ye not unequally 
yoked." 

Ill news flies fast enough. — Hence, "no news is 
good news"; for, if there had been bad to hear, we 
should have heard it. People seem more eager to 
publish the evil than the good; probably because 
they are evil. 

Ill weeds always grow apace; 
Folly runs a rapid race. 

Ill won is generally ill worn. — A righteous fatal- 
ity seems to prevent the dishonest from enjoying 
their plunder. He who steals eels finds them turn 
to snakes. Ill-gotten goes rotten. What the devil 
brings the devil takes away. 

Ill words are bellows to the fire of anger. — He 
that is quiet causeth no riot. 

Ills that God blesses are my good; 

All unblest good is ill; 
And all is right that seems most wrong 

If it be God's dear will. 



I48 SPURGEON 

A fine distich, which deserves to be made pro- 
verbial, seeing it is a conglomerate of proverbs, 
and full of grace. It has been wisely said that 
"ills are wells when God blesses them." 

Imitate the best, not the worst. — Our propen- 
sity to imitate is very strong, hence the importance 
of selecting a good model. Johnson says that no 
man becomes great by imitation, but we doubt it; 
in the beginning of life the imitation of a good 
model leads on to originality. 

Improve time in time while time doth last; 
For all time is no time when time is past. 

Impatience is the sting of affliction. — And this 
we put into it ourselves. What folly! 



CHAPTER XI 

"JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S TALK" 

A country life is sweet, 

In moderate cold and heat; 
To walk in the air how pleasant and fair! 

In every field of wheat, 
The fairest of flowers adorning the bowers, 

And every meadow's brow; 
So that, I say, no courtier may 
Compare with them who clothe in gray, 

And follow the useful plough. 

They rise with the morning lark, 

And labor till almost dark; 
Then, folding their sheep, they hasten to sleep, 

While every pleasant park 
Next morning is ringing with the birds that are singing 

On each green, tender bough. 
With what content and merriment 
Their days are spent whose minds are bent 

To follow the useful plough! 

If success is ever to be regarded as a proof of 
worth, then the fact that nearly 400,000 copies 
of "John Ploughman's Talk" have been sold, and 
the sale is still going on, is a fact that bears incon- 
trovertible evidence that Mr. Spurgeon knew how 
to write for the people. He was at one time the 
best abused man in England, he lived to have 
more hearers and more readers than any man of 
his time. A perusal of a handful of selections 
from this matchless combination of common sense, 
practical religion and inimitable humor, will serve 
to convince the reader that "John Ploughman's 

149 



150 SPURGEON 

Talk" was popular simply because it deserved to 
be. 

MR. SPURGEON TALKS OF HIS "TALK" 

In "John Ploughman's Talk" I have tried to talk 
for ploughmen and common people. Hence re- 
fined taste and dainty words have been discarded 
for strong old proverbial expressions and homely 
phrases. I have aimed my blows at the vices of 
the many, and tried to inculcate those moral virt- 
ues without which men are degraded and miser- 
able. Much that needs to be said to the toiling 
masses would not suit well the pulpit and the Sab- 
bath. These lowly pages may teach thrift and in- 
dustry all the days of the week, in the cottage and 
the workshop; and if some learn these lessons I 
shall not repent the adoption of the rustic style. 

Ploughman is a name I may justly claim. Every 
minister has put his hand to the plough — it is his 
business to break up the fallow ground and cast 
in good seed. That I have written in a semi- 
humorous vein shall need no apology, if thereby 
sound moral teaching wins a hearing from the mill- 
ion. There is no particular virtue in being seri- 
ously unreadable. 

ALL IS LOST THAT IS POURED INTO A CRACKED DISH 

The cook who pours her soup into a cracked 
dish, is wasting her precious liquor, for it runs out 
almost as fast as it runs in. The sooner she stops 



JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S TALK I 53 

that game the better. This makes me think of a 
good deal of preaching; it is labor in vain, because 
it does not stay in the minds of the hearers, but 
goes in at one ear and out at the other. When 
men go to market they are all alive to do a trade, 
but in a place of worship they are not more than 
half awake, and do not seem to care whether they 
profit or not by what they hear. I once heard a 
preacher say, "Half of you are asleep, half are 
inattentive, and the rest — " He never finished 
that sentence, for the people began to smile, and 
here and there one burst out laughing. Certainly, 
many only go to meeting to stare about. 

"Attend your church, the parson cries; 
To church each fair one goes; 
The old ones go to close their eyes, 
The young to eye their clothes." 

You might as well preach to the stone images in 
the old church as to people who are asleep. Some 
old fellows come into our meeting, pitch into their 
corner, and settle themselves down for a quiet 
snooze as knowingly as if the pew was a sleeping- 
car on the railway. Still, all the sleeping at serv- 
ice is not the fault of the poor people, for some 
parsons put a lot of sleeping stuff into their ser- 
mons. Will Shepherd says they mesmerize the 
people. (I think that is the right word, but I'm 
not sure.) I saw a verse in a real live book, by 
Mr. Cheales, the vicar of Brockham, a place which 
is handy to my home. I'll give it you: — 

" The ladies praise our curate's eyes; 
I never see their light divine, 
For when he prays he closes them, 
And when he preaches closes mine." 



154 SPURGEON 

Well, if curates are heavy in style, the people 
will soon be heavy in sleep. Even when hearers 
are awake, many of them are forgetful. It is like 
pouring a jug of ale between the bars of a grid- 
iron, to try and teach them good doctrine. Water 
on a duck's back does have some effect, but ser- 
mons by the hundred are as much lost upon many 
men's hearts as if they had been spoken to a ken- 
nel of hounds. Preaching to some fellows is like 
whipping the water or lashing the air. As well 
talk to a turnip, or whistle to a dead donkey 
preach to these dull ears. A year's sermons - 
not produce an hour's repentance till the grace of 
God comes in. 

We have a good many hangers-on who think 
that their duty to God consists in hearing sermoos 
and that the best fruit of their hearing is to talk of 
what they have heard. How they do lay the law 
down when they get argifying about doctrines! 
Their religion all runs to ear and tongue: neither 
their heart nor their hand is a scrap the better. This 
is poor work, and will never pay the piper. The 
sermon which only gets as far as the ear is like a 
dinner eaten in a dream. It is ill to lie soaking in 
the gospel like a bit of coal in a milkpan, never 
the whiter for it all. 

What can be the good of being hearers only? It 
disappoints the poor preacher, and it brings no 
blessing to the man himself. Looking at a plum 
won't sweeten your mouth, staring at a coat won't 
cover your back, and lying on the bank won't 



JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S TALK 1 55 

catch the fish in the river. The cracked dish is 
never the better for all that is poured into it — it 
is like our forgetful heart, it wants to be taken 
away, and a new one put instead of it. 

UNDER THE SIGN OF THE CAT'S FOOT 

The question was once asked, When should a 
man marry ? And the merry answer was, that for 
young men it is too soon, and for old men it is too 
late. This is all very fine, but it will not wash. 
Both the wisdom and the folly of men seem banded 
together to make a mock of this doctrine. Men 
are such fools that they must and will marry, even 
if they marry fools. It is wise to marry when we 
can marry wisely, and then the sooner the better. 
How many show their sense in choosing a partner 
it is not for me to say, but I fear that in many 
cases love is blind, and makes a very blind choice. 
I don't suppose that some people would ever get 
married at all if love had its wits about it. It is a 
mystery how certain parties ever found partners; 
truly there's no accounting for tastes. However, 
as they make their bed they must lie on it, and as 
they tie the knot they must be tied by it. If a 
man catches a tartar, or lets a tartar catch him, 
he must take his dose of tartaric acid, and make 
as few ugly faces as he can. If a three-legged 
stool come flying through the air, he must be thank- 
ful for such a plain token of love from the woman 
of his choice, and the best thing he can do is to 
sit down on it and wait for the next little article. 



I $6 SPURGEON 

When it is said of a man, "He lives under the 
sign of the cat's foot," he must try and please his 
pussy, that she may not scratch him more than 
such cats generally do. A good husband will gen- 
erally have a good wife, or make a bad wife bet- 
ter. Bad Jack makes a great noise about bad Jill, 
but there's generally twenty of one where there's 
a score of the other. They say a burden of one's 
own choosing is never felt to be heavy, but I don't 
know; some men are loaded with mischief as soon 
as they have a wife to carry. Yet 

A good woman is worth, if she were sold, 
The fairest crown that's made of gold. 

She is a pleasure, a treasure, and a joy without 
measure. A good wife and health are a man's 
best wealth; and he who is in such a case should 
envy no man's place. Even when a woman is a 
little tart, it is better than if she had no spirit, and 
made her house into a dirt pie. A shrew is bet- 
ter than a slut, though one can be quite miserable 
enough with either. If she is a good housewife, 
and looks well after the children, one may put up 
with a Caudle lecture now and then, though a 
cordial lecture would be a deal better. A husband 
is in a pickle indeed if he gets tied up to a regular 
scold; he might as well be skinned and set up to 
his neck in a tub of brine. Did you ever hear the 
scold's song? Read it, you young folks who think 
of committing matrimony, and think twice before 
you get married once. 



JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S TALK 1 57 

When in the morn I ope mine eyes 

To entertain the day, 
Before my husband e'en can rise, 
; I scold him —then I pray. 

When I at table take my place, 

Whatever be the meat, 
I first do scold — and then say grace, 
£. If so disposed to eat. 

Too fat, too lean, too hot, too cold, 
I always do complain; 

Too raw, too roast, too young, too old- 
Faults I will find or feign. 

Let it be flesh, or fowl, or fish, 

It never shall be said 
But I'll find fault with meat or dish, 

With master or with maid. 

But when I go to bed at night 

I heartily do weep, 
That I must part with my delight — 

I cannot scold and sleep. 

However, this doth mitigate 

And much abate my sorrow, 
That though to-night it be too late, 

I'll early scold to-morrow. 

When the husband is not a man, it is not to be 
wondered at if the wife wears the top-boots; the 
mare may well be the best horse when the other 
horse is a donkey. Well may a woman feel that 
she is lord and master when she has to earn the 
living for the family, as is sometimes the case. 
She ought not to be the head, but if she has all 
the brains, what is she to do? What poor dawdles 
many men would be without their wives! As poor 
softy Simpkins says, if Bill's wife becomes a widow, 
who will cut the pudding up for him, and will 
there be a pudding at all? It is grand when the 
wife knows her place, and keeps it, and they both 
1Q 



I58 SPURGEON 

pull together in everything. Then she is a help- 
meet indeed, and makes the house a home. Old 
friend Tusser says: 

" When husband is absent let housewife be chief, 
And look to their labor who live from their sheaf; 
The housewife's so named for she keepeth the house, 
And must tend on her profit as cat on a mouse." 

He is very pat upon it that much of household 
affairs must rest on the wife, and he writes: 

"Both out, not allow, 

Keep home, housewife thou." 

Like the old man and woman in the toy which 
shows the weather, one must be sure to be in if 
the other goes out. When the king is abroad the 
queen must reign at home, and when he returns 
to his throne he is bound to look upon her as his 
crown, and prize her above gold and jewels. He 
should feel, "If there's only one good wife in the 
whole world, I've got her." John Ploughman 
has long thought just that of his own wife, and 
after five and twenty years he is more sure of it 
than ever. He never bets, but he would not mind 
wagering a farthing cake that there is not a better 
woman on the surface of the globe than his own, 
very own beloved. Happy is the man who is 
happy in his wife. Let him love her as he loves 
himself, and a little better, for she is his better 
half. 

Thank God that hath so blest thee, 
And sit down, John, and rest thee. 

There is one case in which I don't wonder if the 



JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S TALK 1 59 

wife does put her mate under the cat's foot, and 
that is when he slinks off to the public and wastes 
his wages. Even then love and gentleness is the 
best way of getting him home; but, really, some 
topers have no feeling, and laugh at kindness, and 
therefore nobody can be surprised if the poor wife 
bristles up and gives her lord and master a taste 
of tongue. Nothing tries married love more than 
the pothouse. Wages wasted, wife neglected, 
children in rags — if she gives it him hot and strong, 
who can blame her? Pitch into him, good woman, 
and make him ashamed of himself, if you can. 
No wonder that you lead a cat-and-dog life while 
he is such a sorry dog. 

Still, you might as well go home and set him a 
better example, for two blacks will never make a 
white, and if you put him in hot water he's sure 
to get some spirits to mix with it. 

there's reason in roasting eggs. 

A good thing is not good out of its place. It is 
much the same with lads and girls. You can't put 
all boys, to one trade, nor send all girls to the same 
service. One chap will make a London clerk, and 
another will do better to plough, and sow, and 
reap, and mow, and be a farmer's boy. It's no 
use forcing them; a snail will never run a race, 
nor a mouse drive a wagon. 

" Send a boy to the well against his will, 
The pitcher will break and the water spill." 

With unwilling hounds it is hard to hunt hares. 



l6o SPURGEON 

To go against nature and inclination is to row 
against wind and tide. They say you may praise 
a fool till you make him useful. I don't know so 
much about that, but I do know that if I get a bad 
knife I generally cut my finger, and a blunt ax is 
more trouble than profit. No, let me shave with 
a razor if I shave at all, and do my work with the 
best tools I can get. 

Never set a man to work he is not fit for, for he 
will never do it well. They say that if pigs fly 
they always go with their tails forward, and awk- 
ward workmen are much the same. Nobody ex- 
pects cows to catch crows, or hens to wear hats. 
There's reason in roasting eggs, and there should 
be reason in choosing servants. Don't put a 
round peg into a square hole, nor wind up your 
watch with a corkscrew, nor set a tender-hearted 
man to whip wife-beaters, nor a bear to be a reliev- 
ing-officer, nor a publican to judge of the licensing 
laws. Get the right man in the right place, and 
then all goes as smooth as skates on ice; but the 
wrong man puts all awry, as the sow did when she 
folded the linen. 

It is a temptation to many to trust them with 
money — don't put them to take care of it if you 
ever wish to to see it again. Never set a cat to 
watch cream, nor a pig to gather peaches, for if 
the cream and the peaches go a-missing you will 
have yourself to thank for it. It is a sin to put 
people where they are likely to sin. If you believe 
the old saying, that when you set a beggar on 



JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S TALK l6l 

horseback he will ride to the devil, don't let him 
have a horse of yours. 

If you want a thing well done do it yourself, and 
pick your tools. It is true that a man must row 
with such oars as he has, but he should not use 
the boat-hook for a paddle. Take not the tongs 
to poke the fire, nor the poker to put on the coals. 
A newspaper on Sunday is as much out of place as 
a warming-pan on the first of August, or a fan 
on a snowy day ; the Bible suits the Sabbath a deal 
better. 

He who tries to make money by betting uses a 
wrong tool, and is sure to cut his fingers. As well 
hope to grow golden pippins on the bottom of the 
sea as to make gain among gamblers if you are an 
honest man. Hard work and thrifty habits are 
the right razor; gambling is a handsaw. 

Some things want doing gently, and telling a 
man of his faults is one of them. You would not 
fetch a hatchet to break open an egg, nor kill a fly 
on your boy's forehead with a sledge-hammer, and 
so you must not try to mend your neighbor's little 
fault by blowing him up sky-high. Never fire off 
a musket to kill a midge, and don't raise a hue 
and cry about the half of nothing. 

Do not throw away a saw because it is not a 
razor, for it will serve your turn another day, anq 
cut your ham-bone if it won't shave off your stub- 
ble. A whetstone, though it cannot cut, may 
sharpen a knife that will. A match gives little 
light itself, but it may light a candle to brighter 



I 62 SPURGEON 

up the room. Use each thing and each man ac- 
cording to common-sense and you will be uncom- 
monly sensible. You don't milk horses nor ride 
cows, and by the same rule you must make of every 
man what he is meant for, and the farm will be as 
right as a trivet. 

Everything has its use, but no one thing is good 
for all purposes. The baby said, "The cat crew 
and the cock rocked the cradle," but old folks 
knew better — the cat is best at mousing and the 
cock at rousing. That's for that, as salt is for 
herrings, and sugar for gooseberries, and N for 
Nicholas. Don't choose your tools by their looks, 
for that's best which does best. A silver trowel 
lays very few bricks. You cannot curry a horse 
with a tortoise-shell comb, or fell oaks with a pen- 
knife, or open oysters with a gold toothpick. Fine 
is not so good as fit when work is to be done. A 
good workman will get on pretty well with a poor 
tool, and a brave soldier never lacks a weapon: 
still, the best is good enough for me, and John 
Ploughman does not care to use a clumsy tool be- 
cause it looks pretty. Better ride on an ass that 
carries you than on a steed which throws you; it 
is far better to work with an old-fashioned spade 
which suits your hand than with a new-fangled 
invention you don't understand. 

In trying to do good to your fellow-men the 
gospel is out of sight the best instrument to work 
with. The new doctrine which they call "modern 
thought" is nothing better than a handsaw, and 



JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S TALK 163 

won't work a bit. This fine new nothing of a gospel 
would not save a mouse, nor move the soul of a 
tomtit; but the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ is 
suited to man's need, and by God's grace does its 
work famously. Let every preacher and teacher 
keep to it, for they will never find a better. Try 
to win men with its loving words and precious 
promises, and there's no fear of labor in vain. 
Some praise the balm of Gilead, or man's morality; 
many try the Roman salve, or the oil of Babylon; 
and others use a cunning ointment mixed by learned 
philosophers; but for his own soul's wounds, 
and for the hurts of others, John Ploughman knows 
but one cure, and that is given gratis by the Good 
Physician to all who ask for it. A humble faith in 
Christ Jesus will soon bring you this sovereign 
remedy. Use no other, for no other is of use. 

TRY 

If you want to do good in the world, the little 
word "Try" comes in again. There are plenty of 
ways of serving God, and some that will fit you 
exactly, as a key fits a lock. Don't hold back 
because you cannot preach in St. Paul's; be con- 
tent to talk to one or two in a cottage; very good 
wheat grows in little fields. You may cook in 
small pots as well as big ones. Little pigeons can 
carry great messages. Even a little dog can bark 
at a thief, and wake up the master and save the 
house. A spark is fire. A sentence of truth has 
heaven in it. Do what you do right thoroughly, 



164 SPURGEON 

pray over it heartily, and leave the result to God. 
Alas ! advice is thrown away on many, like good 
seed on a bare rock. Teach a cow for seven years, 
but she will never learn to sing the Old Hundredth. 
Of some it seems true that when they were born 
Solomon went by the door, but would not look in. 
Their coat-of-arms is a fool's cap on a donkey's 
head. They sleep when it is time to plough, and 
weep when harvest comes. They eat all the par- 
snips for supper, and wonder they have none left 
for breakfast. Our working people are shame- 
fully unthrifty, and so old England swarms with 
poor. If what goes into the mash-tub went into 
the kneading-troughs, families would be better fed 
and better taught. If what is spent in waste were 
only saved against a rainy day, workhouses would 
never be built. 

Once let every man say "Try," 
Very few on straw would lie; 
Fewer still of want would die; 
Pans would all have fish to fry; 
Pigs would fill the poor man's sty; 
Want would cease and need would fly; 
Wives and children cease to cry; 
Poor-rates would not swell so high; 
Things wouldn't go so much awry — 
You'd be glad, and so would I. 

A GOOD WORD FOR WIVES 

We pulled up the horses at the sign of the "Good 
Woman;" and as there is good entertainment for 
man, if not for beast, under that sign, we will make 
a stay of it, and dip our pen into some of that 
superfine ink which has no galls in it. When he 



JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S TALK l6$ 

writes on so fair a subject, John Ploughman must 
be on his best behavior. 

I am of Solomon's mind, that, as a rule, he that 
findeth a wife findeth a good thing. If there's one 
bad shilling taken at the grocer's all the neighbors 
hear of it, but of the hundreds of good ones report 
says nothing. A good woman makes no noise, and 
no noise is made about her; but a shrew is noted 
all over the parish. Taking them for all in all, 
they are most angelical creatures, and a great deal 
too good for half the husbands. 

It is much to the woman's credit that there are 
very few old sayings against husbands, although in 
this case sauce for the goose would make capital 
sauce for the gander; and the mare has as good 
reasons for kicking as the horse has. They must 
be very forbearing, or they would have given the 
men a Roland for every Oliver. Pretty dears, 
they may be rather quick in their talk, but is it 
not the nature of bells and belles to have tongues 
that swing easy ? They cannot be so very bad after 
all, or they would have had their revenge for the 
many cruel things which are said against them; 
and if they are a bit masterful, their husbands can- 
not be such very great victims, or they would 
surely have sense enough to hold their tongues 
about it. Men don't care to have it known when 
they are thoroughly well henpecked, and I feel 
pretty certain that the old sayings are nothing but 
chaff, for if they were true men they would never 
dare to own it. 



I 66 SPURGEON 

A true wife is her husband's better half, his 
lump of delight, his flower of beauty, his guardian 
angel, and his heart's treasure. He says to her: 
"I shall in thee most happy be. In thee, my 
choice, I do rejoice. In thee I find content of 
mind. God's appointment is my contentment." 
In her company he finds his earthly heaven; she is 
the light of his home, the comfort of his soul, and 
(for this world) the soul of his comfort. What- 
ever fortune God may send him, he is rich so long 
as she lives. His rib is the best bone in his body. 

The man who weds a loving wife, 
Whate'er betideth him in life, 

Shall bear up under all; 
But he that finds an evil mate, 
No good can come within his gate; 

His cup is fUl'd with gall, 

A good husband makes a good wife. Some men 
can neither do without wives nor with them; they 
are wretched alone, in what is called single blessed- 
ness, and they make their homes miserable when 
they get married; they are like Tompkin's dog, 
which could not bear to be loose, and howled when 
it was tied up. Happy bachelors are likely to be 
happy husbands, and a happy husband is the hap- 
piest of men. A well-matched couple carry a joy- 
ful life between them, as the two spies carried the 
cluster of Eshcol. They are a brace of birds of 
Paradise. They multiply their joys by sharing 
them, and lessen their troubles by dividing them; 
this is fine arithmetic. The wagon of care rolls 
lightly along as they pull together; and when it 



JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S TALK 1 67 

drags a little heavily, or there's a hitch anywhere, 
they love each other all the more, and so lighten 
the labor. 

When a couple fall out, there are always faults 
on both sides, and generally there is a pound on 
one and sixteen ounces on the other. When a 
home is miserable, it is as often the husband's 
fault as the wife's. Darby is as much to blame as 
Joan, and sometimes more. If the husband won't 
keep sugar in the cupboard, no wonder his wife 
gets sour. Want of bread makes want of love; 
lean dogs fight. Poverty generally rides home on 
the husband's back, for it is not often the woman's 
place to go out working for wages. A man down 
our parts gave his wife a ring with this on it: "If 
thee don't work, thee sha'n't eat." He was a 
brute. It is no business of hers to bring in the grist 
— she is to see it is well used and not wasted; 
therefore, I say, short commons are not her fault, 
She is not the bread-winner, but the bread-maker. 
She earns more at home than any wages she can 
get abroad. 

It is not the wife who smokes and drinks away 
the wages at the "Brown Bear" or the "Jolly 
Topers." One sees a drunken woman now and 
then, and it's an awful sight; but in ninety-nine 
cases out of a hundred it is the man who comes 
home tipsy and abuses the children — -the woman 
seldom does that. The poor drudge of a wife is a 
teetotaler, whether she likes it or no, and gets 
plenty of hot water as well as cold. Women are 



1 68 SPURGEON 

found fault with for often looking into the glass, 
but that is not so bad a glass as men drown their 
senses in. The wives do not sit boozing over the 
tap-room fire; they, poor souls, are shivering at 
home with the baby, watching the clock (if there 
is one), wondering when their lords and masters 
will come home, and crying while they wait. I 
wonder they don't strike. Some of them are about 
as wretched as a cockchafer on a pin, or a mouse 
in a cat's mouth. They have to nurse the sick 
girl, and wash the dirty boy, and bear with the 
crying and noise of the children, while his lordship 
puts on his hat, lights his pipe, and goes off about 
his own pleasure, or comes in at his own time to 
find fault with his poor dame for not getting him a 
fine supper. How could he expect to be fed like a 
fighting cock, when he brought home so little 
money on Saturday night, and spends so much in 
worshiping Sir John Barleycorn? I say it, I know 
it, there's many a house where there would be no 
scolding wife if there was not a skulking, guzzling 
husband. Fellows not fit to be cut up for mops 
drink and drink till all is blue, and then turn on 
their poor hacks for not having more to give them. 
Don't tell me — I say it, and will maintain it, a 
woman can't help being vexed when, with all her 
mending and striving, she can't keep house, because 
her husband won't let her. It would provoke any 
of us if we had to make bricks without straw, keep 
the pot boiling without fire, and pay the piper out 
of an empty purse. What can she get out of the 



JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S TALK 1 69 

oven when she has neither meal nor dough? You 
bad husbands, you are thoroughbred sneaks, and 
ought to be hung up by your heels till you know 
better. 

They say a man of straw is worth a woman of 
gold, but I cannot swallow it; a man of straw is 
worth no more than a woman of straw, let old say- 
ings lie as they like. Jack is no better than Jill, 
as a rule. When there is wisdom in the husband, 
there's generally gentleness in the wife, and be-* 
tween them the old wedding wish is worked out: 
"One year of joy, another of comfort, and all the 
rest of content." Where hearts agree, there joy 
will be. United hearts death only parts. They 
say marriage is not often merry-age y but ver^ 
commonly mar-age; well, if so, the coat and 
waistcoat have as much to do with it as the gown 
and petticoat. The honeymoon need not come to 
an end; and when it does, it is often the man's 
fault for eating all the honey, and leaving nothing 
but moonshine; when they both agree that, what- 
ever becomes of the moon, they will each keep up 
their share of honey, there's merry living. When 
a man dwells under the sign of the cat's foot, 
where faces get scratched, either his wife did not 
marry a man, or he did not marry a woman. If a 
man cannot take care of himself, his wit must be as 
scant as the wool of a blue dog. I don't pity most 
of the men martyrs; I save my pity for the women. 
When the Dunmow-flitch is lost, neither of the 
pair will eat the bacon; but the wife is the most 



I70 SPURGEON 

likely to fast for the want of it. Every herring 
must hang by its own gill, and every person must 
account for his own share in home quarrels; but 
John Ploughman can't bear to see all the blame 
laid on the women. Whenever a dish is broke the 
cat did it, and whenever there is mischief, there's 
a woman at the bottom of it — here are two as 
pretty lies as you will meet with in a month's 
march. There's a why for every wherefore, but 
the why for family jars does not always lie with 
the housekeeper. I know some women have long 
tongues, then the more's the pity that their hus- 
bands should set them going; but for the matter 
of talk, just look into a bar parlor when the men's 
jaws are well oiled with liquor, and if any women 
living can talk faster or be more stupid than the 
men, my name is not John Ploughman. 

When I had got about as far as this, in stepped 
our minister, and he said, "John, you've got a 
tough subject, a cut above you; I'll lend you a rare 
old book to help you over the stile." "Well, sir, 
said I, "a little help is worth a great deal of fault- 
finding, and I shall be uncommonly obliged to 
you." He sent me down old William Seeker's 
"Wedding Ring;" and a real wise fellow that Seeker 
was. I could not do any other than pick out some 
of his pithy bits; they are very flavory, and such 
as are likely to glue themselves to the memory. 
He says: "Hast thou a soft heart? It is of God's 
breaking. Hast thou a sweet wife ? She is of God's 
making. The Hebrews have a saying, 'He is not 



JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S TALK IJt 

a man that hath not a woman.' Though man 
alone may be good, yet it is not good that man 
should be alone. 'Every good gift and every per- 
fect gift is from above. ' A wife, though she be 
not a perfect gift, is a good gift, a beam darted 
from the Sun of mercy. How happy are those 
marriages where Christ is at the wedding! Let 
none but those who have found favor in God's 
eyes, find favor in yours. Husbands should spread 
a mantle of charity over their wives' infirmities. 
Do not put out the candle because of the snuff. 
Husbands and wives should provoke one another 
to love, and they should love one another notwith- 
standing provocations. The tree of love should 
grow up in the midst of the family as the tree of 
life grew in the garden of Eden. Good servants 
are a great blessing, good children a greater bless- 
ing; but a good wife is the greatest blessing; and 
such a help let him seek for her that wants one; 
let him sigh for her that hath lost one; let him 
delight in her that enjoys one." 

To come down from the old Puritan's roast beef 
to my own pot herbs, or, as they say, to put Jack 
after gentleman, I will tell my own experience, and 
have done. 

My experience of my first wife, who will, I hope, 
live to be my last, is much as follows: Matrimony 
came from Paradise, and leads to it. I never was 
half so happy before I was a married man as I am 
now. When you are married, your bliss begins. I 
have no doubt that where there is much love there 



172 SPURGEON 

will be much to love, and where love is scant faults 
tvill be plentiful. If there is only one good wife in 
England, I am the man who put the ring on her 
finger, and long may she wear it ! God bless the 
dear soul ! If she can put up with me, she shall 
never be put down by me. 

If I wers not married to-day, and saw a suitable 
partner, I would be married to-morrow morning 
before breakfast. What think you of that ? "Why," 
says one, "I think John would get a new wife if he 
were left a widower." Well, and what if he did, 
how could he better show that he was happy with 
his first? I declare I would not say as some do, 
that they married to have some one to look after 
the children; I should marry to have some one to 
look after myself. John Ploughman is a sociable 
oul, and could not do in a house by himself. One 
man, when he married his fourth wife, put on the 
ring,— 

" If I survive I'll make it five." 

What an old Bluebeard ! Marriages are made in 
heaven; matrimony in itself is good, but there are 
fools who turn meat into poison, and make a bless- 
ing into a curse. 

what! rob a poor man of his beer? 

"What! rob a poor man of his beer?" The fact 
is that they rob the poor man by his beer. The 
ale-jug robs the cupboard and the table, starves 
the wife and strips the children; it is a great thief, 
housebreaker, and heartbreaker; and the best pos- 



JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S TALK 1 73 

sible thing is to break it to pieces, or keep it on 
the shelf bottom upward. In a newspaper which 
was lent me the other day I saw some verses by 
John Barleycorn, Jr., and, as they tickled my 
fancy, I copied them out, and there they are,— 

What! rob a poor man of his beer, 
And give him good victuals instead? 

Your heart's very hard, sir, I fear, 
Or at least you are soft in the head. 

What! rob a poor man of his mug, 

And give him a house of his own, 
With kitchen and parlor so snug? 

'Tis enough to draw tears from a stone. 

What! rob a poor man of his glass, 
And teach him to read and to write? 

What! save him from being an ass? 
'Tis nothing but malice and spite. 

What! rob a poor man of his ale, 

And prevent him from beating his wife— - 

From being locked up in a jail, 
With penal employment for life! 

Having given you a song, I now hand you a 
handbill to stick up in the "Rose and Crown" win- 
dow, if the landlord wants an advertisement. It 
was written many years ago, but it is quite as good 
as new. Any beer-seller may print it who thinks 
it likely to help his trade. 

DRUNKARDS, READ THIS! 

DRUNKENNESS 

EXPELS REASON, 

DISTEMPERS THE BODY, 

DIMINISHES STRENGTH, 

INFLAMES THE BLOOD, 

/ INTERNAL v 

1 EXTERNAL f 

causes < „ mrm T r V wounds: 

j ETERNAL j * 

' INCURABLE / 



1 74 SPURGEON 

IS J 

A WITCH TO THE SENSES, 

A DEMON TO THE SOUL, 

A THIEF TO THE PURSE, 

A GUIDE TO BEGGARY, LECHERY AND VILLAINY. 

IT IS 

THE WIFE'S WOE AND 

THE CHILDREN'S SORROW, 

MAKES A MAN 

WALLOW WORSE THAN A BEAST, AND 

ACT LIKE A FOOL. 

HE IS 

A SELF-MURDERER 

WHO DRINKS TO ANOTHER'S GOOD HEALTH, 

AND 

ROBS HIMSELF OF HIS OWN. 

HOPE 

Eggs are eggs, but some are rotten; and so 
hopes are hopes, but many of them are delusions. 
Hopes are like women, there is a touch of angel 
about them all, but there are two sorts. My boy 
Tom has been blowing a lot of bird's eggs, and 
threading them on a string; I have been doing 
the same thing with hopes, and here's a few of 
them, good, bad, and indifferent. 

The sanguine man's hope pops up in a moment 
like Jack-in-a-box; it works with a spring, and 
does not go by reason. Whenever this man looks 
out of the window he sees better times coming, 
and although it is nearly all in his own eye and 
nowhere else, yet to see plum-puddings in the 
moon is a far more cheerful habit than croaking at 
everything like a two-legged frog. This is the 



JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S TALK 175 

kind of brother to be on the road with on a pitch- 
dark night, when it pours with rain, for he carries 
candles in his eyes, and a fireside in his heart. 
Beware of being misled by him, and then you may 
safely keep his company. His fault is that he 
counts his chickens before they are hatched, and 
sells his herrings before they are in the net. All 
his sparrow's eggs are bound to turn into thrushes, 
at least, if not partridges and pheasants. Summer 
has fully come, for he has seen one swallow. He 
is sure to make his fortune at his new shop, for he 
had not opened the door five minutes before two 
of the neighbors crowded in — one of them wanted 
a loaf of bread on trust, and the other asked change 
for a shilling. He is certain that the squire means 
to give him his custom, for he saw him reading the 
name over the shop door as he rode past. He 
does not believe in slips between cups and lips, but 
makes certainties out of perhapses. Well, good 
soul, though he is a little soft at times, there is 
much in him to praise, and I like to think of one 
of his odd sayings, "Never say die till you are dead, 
and then it's of no use, so let it alone." There 
are other odd people in the world, you see, be- 
sides John Ploughman. 

My neighbor Shiftless is waiting for his aunt to 
die, but the old lady has as many lives as nine 
cats, and my notion is that when she does die she 
will leave her little money to the Hospital for 
Diseased Cats or Stray Dogs, sooner than her 
nephew Jack shall have it. Poor creature, he is 



I76 SPURGEON 

dreadfully down at the heel, and lays it all on the 
dear old lady's provoking constitution. However, 
he hopes on, and gets worse and worse, for while 
the grass grows the horse starves. He pulls at a 
long rope who waits for another's death; he who 
hunts after legacies had need have iron shoes. He 
that waits for dead men's shoes may long go bare- 
foot; he who waits for his uncle's cow need not 
be in a hurry to spread the butter. He who lives 
on hope has a slim diet. If Jack Shiftless never 
had an aunt, he might have tucked up his shirt- 
sleeves and worked for himself, but they told him 
he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and 
that made a spoon of him, so that he is no more 
use at work than a cow at catching hares. If any- 
body likes to leave John Ploughman a legacy, he 
will be very much obliged to them, but they had 
not better tell him of it for fear he would not 
plough so straight a furrow; they had better make 
it twice as much, and take him by surprise. On 
the whole, it would be better to leave it to the 
Pastors' College or the Stockwell Orphanage, for 
it will be well used in either case. I wish people 
would think less about windfalls, and plant more 
apple trees. Hopes that grow out of graves are 
grave mistakes; and when they cripple a man's 
own energies, they are a sort of hangman's rope, 
dangling round a man's neck. 

Some people were born on the first of April, and 
are always hoping without sense or reason. Their 
ship is to come home, they are to dig up a pot of 



JOHN PLOUGHMAN S TALK 1 7/ 

gold, or to hear of something to their advantage. 
Poor sillies, they have wind on the brain, and 
dream while they are awake. They may hold their 
mouths open a long while before fried ham and 
eggs will come flying into them, and yet they 
really seem to believe that some stroke of luck, 
some windfall of golden apples, will one day set 
them up and make gentlemen of them. They 
hope to ride in their coaches, and by and by find 
themselves shut up in a place where the coaches 
won't run over them. You may whistle a long 
while before goldfinches will hop on to your thumb. 
Once in a while one man in a million may stumble 
against a fortune, but thousands ruin themselves 
by idle expectations. Expect to get half of what 
you earn, a quarter of what is your due, and none 
of what you have lent, and you will be near the 
mark; but to look for a fortune to fall from the 
moon is to play the fool with a vengeance. A 
man ought to hope within the bounds of reason 
and the promises of the good old Book. Hope 
leans on an anchor, but an anchor must have 
something to hold by and to hold to. A hope 
without grounds is a tub without a bottom, a horse 
without a head, a goose without a body, a shoe 
without a sole, a knife without a blade. Who but 
Simple Simon would begin to build a house at the 
top? There must be a foundation. Hope is no 
hope, but sheer folly, when a man hopes for im- 
possibilities, or looks for crops without sowing 
seed, and for happiness without doing good. Such 



I ?$ SPURGEON 

hopes lead to great boast and small roast; they act 
like a jack-o'-lantern and lead men into the ditch. 
There's poor Will at the workhouse, who always 
declares that he owns a great estate, only the right 
owner keeps him out of it; his name is Jenyns, 
or Jennings, and somebody of that name, he says, 
has left enough money to buy the Bank of England, 
and one day he is to have a share of it; but mean- 
while poor Will finds the parish broth poor stuff 
for such a great gentleman's stomach; he has 
promised me an odd thousand or two when he gets 
his fortune, and I am going to build a castle in 
the air with it, and ride to it on a broomstick. 
Poor soul, like a good many others he has windmills 
in his head, and may make his will on his thumb- 
nail for anything that he has to give. Depend 
upon it, ploughing the air is not half so profitable 
as it is easy; he who hopes in this world for more 
than he can get by his own earnings hopes to find 
apricots on a crab tree. He who marries a sloven- 
ly, dressy girl, and hopes to make her a good wife, 
might as well buy a goose and expect it to turn 
out a milch cow. He who takes his boys to the 
beer shops, and trusts that they will grow up sober, 
puts his coffee-pot on the fire and expects to see it 
look bright as new tin. Men cannot be in their 
senses when they brew with bad malt and look for 
good beer, or set a wicked example and reckon 
upon raising a respectable family. You may hope 
and hope till your heart grows sick, but when you 
send your boy up the chimney, he'll come down 



JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S TALK 1 79 

black for all your hoping. Teach a child to lie, 
and then hope that he will grow up honest; better 
put a wasp in a tar barrel and wait till he makes you 
honey. As to the next world, it is a great pity that 
men do not take a little more care when they talk 
of it. If a man dies drunk, somebody or other is 
sure to say, "I hope he is gone to heaven." It is 
all very well to wish it, but to hope it, is another 
thing. Men turn their faces to hell, and hope to 
get to heaven; why don't they walk into the horse- 
pond, and hope to be dry? Hopes of heaven are 
solemn things, and should be tried by the word 
of God. A man might as well hope, as our Lord 
says, to gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles, 
as look for a happy hereafter at the end of a bad 
life. There is only one rock to build good hopes 
on and that is not Peter, as the Pope says, neither 
is it sacraments, as the old Roman beast's cubs 
tell us, but the merits of the Lord Jesus. There 
John Ploughman rests, and he is not afraid, for 
this is a firm footing, and gives him a hope sure 
and steadfast, which neither life nor death can 
shake; but I must not turn preacher, so please 
remember that presumption is a ladder which will 
break the mounter's neck, and don't try it, as you 
love your soul. 



CHAPTER XII 

THE EDITOR AT HIS DESK 

" Books may be kept at a smaller charge than preachers. Good 
books are a very great mercy to the world." 

— Richard Baxter. 

" If the crowns of all the kingdoms of the empire were laid 
down at my feet in exchange for my books and my love of reading, 
I would spurn them all." — Archbishop Fenelon. 

For eighteen years Mr. Spurgeon edited "The 
Sword and Trowel," a monthly magazine, that was 
designed to be, as the title-page indicates, a record 
of "Combat with Sin and Labor for the Lord." 
Like much of Mr. Spurgeon' s special work, this 
was forced upon him. It became necessary to 
have a channel of communication between him- 
self and his many correspondents, his students and 
his friends, scattered the wide world over. The 
"Sword and Trowel" was, from first to last, all 
through its eighteen volumes, a bright, cheery, 
entertaining magazine; and now that the Editor 
has passed away, these volumes will have an added 
value from the fact that they, as a complete series, 
constitute the best possible history that can be 
obtained of the Metropolitan Tabernacle, of the 
manifold organizations that were associated with 
it, and of its honored pastor. 



180 



THE EDITOR AT HIS DESK l8l 



When Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton was wearied 
all day long by incessant requests to alter his 
procedure upon a great political question, he told 
his daughter that he could compare the importuni- 
ties of the members of the House of Commons to 
nothing but a continual tooth-drawing. This is an 
image far too striking to be left to Sir Fowell's 
sole use. Many other persons have been made to 
know what a continual tooth-drawing means, and 
we feel persuaded that many more are subjected 
to similar processes. 

We should think that a miserly man, who takes 
a sitting in a place of worship frequented by a 
liberal and energetic people, must frequently feel, 
when he is asked over and over again for a sub- 
scription, that he had almost as soon sit in a den- 
tist's chair, and feel the operator's forceps upon 
his precious dentals. His best plan is to give at 
once, and so end the pain of the extraction. 

The same sort of misery must be experienced by 
the Christian who is always sighing — 

" 'Tis a point I long to know," 

jind incessantly turning over the experience of his 
own heart to see if he can extract from it some 
assuring evidence of his being in Christ. Most 
of us have undergone this unhappy experience, 
and even a moment of it is torture — to have to 
endure it month after month would be agony in- 
deed. Oh, for a childlike faith in Jesus to decide 
the question at once! 



182 SPURGEON 

Personally, we have heard utterances in prayer- 
meetings which were painfully like a continual 
tooth-drawing. They were hard, cold, heartless, 
dreary, and both as long and as dismal as a win- 
ter's night. All of a sudden we thought and hoped 
that the brother had done; but, alas, he took up 
a fresh lease, and entered upon another lengthened 
period! To all appearances he was coming to a 
conclusion a second time, when off he went, like a 
shot which ricochets, or a boy's stone which, when 
thrown into the water, goes — duck— duck — drake 
— upon the surface. The prayer was diluted to 
the dregs of nothing, but end there seemed to be 
none. Oh, that the tooth were out! The beloved 
brother had said all that could be said, and prayed 
for all that could be prayed for; but he evidently 
felt it necessary to begin again. We can have too 
much of a good thing in such a case, and we wish 
the friend thought so. 

Preachers, too, have caused us the same memo- 
rable sensation. The style and manner have been 
painful, and the length of the discourse has made 
the agony a protracted one. Dragging away at 
some metaphysical subtlety, which they could not 
bring into the light; tugging at some unimportant 
difficulty whose fangs defied their power; or ex- 
plaining with marvelous perspicuity what was 
clear as daylight when they began, and marvel- 
ously foggy, before they came to the end, they 
have inflicted upon us "a continual tooth-drawing;" 
at least, our patience was almost as much strained 



THE EDITOR AT HIS DESK 1 83 

as if a grinder had been slowly drawn from our 
aching jaw. We are ready to cry, "Out with it, 
and have done, there's a good man; for we can't 
stand it much longer." 

Worst of all, however, and fullest development 
of Sir Fowell's simile, is the click, clack, click, 
clack, of a fluent female who has gained your ear, 
and means to hold it. 

"She never tires nor stops to rest, 
But on and on she goes." 

We have felt ready to open our mouth, and let 
her draw all our teeth seriatim, if she would but 
leave off talking. She had nothing to say, and 
she said that nothing at extreme length, with mar- 
velous energy, and with unwearied repetition. We 
have turned our head, we have shut our eyes, we 
have wished we had gun-cotton in our ears and 
dynamite in our brain; but our wishes did not de- 
liver us, we were given over to the tormentor, and 
must abide the fulfillment of our sentence. When 
the operation has been over we have sometimes 
asked ourselves what we have done to deserve 
such a punishment, and with every desire to make 
a full confession of our faults, we have not been 
able to discover anything which deserved so severe 
a torment under the present rule of mercy. At 
the second sight of the operator we have fled, feel- 
ing that it would be worth while to go a mile 
round, or leap over hedge and ditch, rather than 
again experience "a continual tooth-drawing." 



184 SPURGEON 

Moral. — Let us all be considerate of the feel- 
ings of others, for when we imagine we are merely 
tickling their ears, we may be causing them as 
much pain as if we were drawing their teeth. 

THE ART OF TORMENTING 

One would hardly have thought it worth an 
author's while to compose a treatise upon "The 
Art of Tormenting;" yet such a book exists, and 
contains many ingenious instructions by which mas- 
ters, husbands, wives, and friends may torture 
their servants, relatives, and acquaintances to an 
intolerable degree. To quote any of the writer's 
suggestions in these pages would be useless, since 
none of our readers wish to learn the science of 
plaguing others. The ingenious writer, a lady, by 
the way, does not recommend the clumsy methods 
of Roman emperors and Popish inquisitors, by 
which it is possible to torment the bodies of men 
and allow the mind and spirit to remain at peace; 
but she deals with subtler arts, by which the mind 
can be lacerated beyond all cure, while yet no 
wound is seen. To torture the heart and spirit of 
a man is far more cruel than to tear his flesh or 
break his bones. One sentiment in this amusing 
treatise struck us as singularly instructive to those 
who are the victims of malicious criticism; the 
author says: "Be very careful daily to observe 
whether your patient continues in good health, 
and is fat and well-liken; for, if so, you may be 
almost certain that your whole labor is thrown 



THE EDITOR AT HIS DESK 1 85 

away. As soon, therefore, as you perceive this to 
be the case, you must (to speak in the phrase of 
surgeons when they hack and hew a human body) 
immediately choose another subject. All the 
pleasure of tormenting is lost as soon as your sub- 
ject becomes insensible to your strokes." We are 
almost reconciled to being corpulent as we read 
these lines. Herein is wisdom. Patience baffles 
malice: the malicious themselves confess their 
defeat; what can we do better than to offer the 
passive resistance which is seen to be so effective? 
Let us no longer gratify our enemies by taking 
notice of their cruel observations and venomous 
insinuations. If we are callous we at once defeat 
them ; there can be no virtue in cultivating a sensi- 
tiveness which makes us vulnerable. The more 
we smart, the more they will scourge; but a back 
of leather laughs at the cat-o' -nine-tails. By 
doing our best at all times we shall be able to defy 
all the criticisms of on-lookers, who, doing noth- 
ing themselves, have all the more leisure to find 
fault with our honest endeavors. In all probabil- 
ity we shall never succeed in any one instance in 
pleasing all who call themselves our friends; and 
as to our enemies, they will never be gratified un- 
less they see us guilty of gross folly; therefore our 
wisest course is to make sure of being right in the 
sight of God, and then to proceed in a straight line 
with firm tread, whether we offend or please. 
The desire to inflict pain is ingrained in some nat- 
ures, and against these there is no defense except 



I 86 SPURGEON 

a manly insensibility. As chemists plunge a fabric 
in a solution of alum and thus enable it to defy 
the flames, so should we immerse ourselves into 
the consciousness of desiring to do right before 
God, and we shall be superior to the fires of slan- 
der. We are not able to abate the fury of Nebuch- 
adnezzar's furnace; but if we can walk in the 
midst of it unharmed, the result will be equally 
harmless and far more sublime. 

Over against the art of tormenting let us set the 
philosophy of enduring; our bane and antidote 
are both before us. 

With the beginning of each new volume Mr. 
Spurgeon issued a characteristic address to his 
readers. Here is a part of one of those yearly 
epistles: — 

Kind Readers: — Throughout another year you 
have sustained the magazine, and as very many of 
you have expressed your satisfaction, and few, if 
any, have favored me with a complaint, I feel 
encouraged to believe that you have been pleased 
with my monthly issues. It was once observed in 
my hearing by a friend who wished to account for 
my fulfillment of numerous duties, that, as for the 
magazine, it was a merely nominal thing to be the 
editor, for few editors ever saw their magazines 
till they were in print. However this may be as 
a rule, it does not contain a spark of truth in my 
case, for I have personally superintended every 
page, and I do not think a single line of the mag- 



THE EDITOR AT HIS DESK 1 87 

azine has passed through the press without having 
been read by me. Whether I succeed or not, 
I certainly do not delegate my task to others. If I 
had more leisure I am sure I could do better, and 
it is with unfeigned satisfaction that I find my 
subscribers contented with what I can procure for 
them. 

"The Sword and Trowel" has been the happy 
means of uniting in gracious service a band of 
gracious givers and workers, who now for these 
.seventeen years have joined to aid the institutions 
which, though they locally surround the Taber- 
nacle, are really the offspring of a congregation 
which is found scattered throughout all lands. By 
means of this warm-hearted brotherhood the Pas- 
tors' College has been sustained from year to year, 
until some six hundred ministers have been edu- 
cated in it, the most of whom are still faithfully 
preaching the old-fashioned gospel in which they 
have been trained. In connection with this enter- 
prise three brethren have been supported as evan- 
gelists, and their itinerant labors have been signally 
successful. Testimonies that churches have been 
aroused and sinners converted by their means, 
have been plentifully sent in, and these pages have 
been increased in interest thereby. Hundreds of 
thousands have heard the gospel through this in- 
strumentality. 

As a critic of other men's work Mr. Spurgeon 
was at least clear and intelligible. He could and 
would praise without stint when he thought the 



I 88 SPURGEON 

book was worthy, and he could and would be 
equally severe. Here follow a few examples, from 
the pages of the "Sword and Trowel." 

What is Truth? As it is manifested by consider- 
ing the Creator, Creation, Revelation, and Man. 

We do not see how the author answers the ques- 
tion of the title. After trying in vain to read and 
understand this limp, yellow-covered emanation, 
we give it up in despair, and say: "How we wish 
writers would have mercy upon readers, and at 
least put their nonsense in language that can be 
understood." Some styles of writing could fairly 
be described as "pea-soup" styles, — cloudy, thick, 
muddy; but for ourselves we prefer clear, honest, 
downright Saxon. 

Companion to the Revised Version of the English 
New Testament. 

By A. Roberts, D. D. 

Every student of the Bible who can afford half- 
a-crown. should get this most useful and entertain- 
ing volume. It contains the sort of reading which 
has the most charm for us, for it deals with the 
Scriptures themselves and their meaning in a most 
pleasant manner. Reading this "Companion," the 
alterations of the Revised Version become vastly 
more intelligible. 

LIGHT LITERATURE 

For novels of all sorts Mr. Spurgeon had a 
supreme contempt. Even religious novels met 



THE EDITOR AT HIS DESK 1 89 

with little favor at his hands; but for the rest he 
thought novel-reading a great waste of time. He 
says: — 

"We would sooner break stones. As folks will 
have these religious fictions, we do our best to let 
them know which of them are well-intentioned, 
but we do not advise the reading of them to any 
great extent. A little pastry may be all very well 
(our slow digestion suggests that the less the bet- 
ter) but to live upon it would be to generate dys- 
pepsia and all sorts of ills; even so, an interesting 
story now and again may be a relief and a pleasure, 
but a constant course of such reading must injure 
both mind and heart. From the quantity of fiction 
which we have lately received, we should think 
that its perusal needs no encouraging, and a little 
repression might be healthy." 

The Fatherhood of God 

One of the most poetic, beautiful, pseudo-philo- 
sophic, but altogether erroneous books on the 
Fatherhood of God which we ever read. As insid- 
ious and attractive as it can be, but altogether 
subversive of the very fundamental truths of the 
gospel concerning man's ruin, regeneration, and 
redemption. Our advice concerning it would be 
the same as given with respect to the proper way 
of preparing cucumber: "Carefully peel and slice 
it, flavor with pepper, salt, and vinegar, and then 
— eat it? Oh, no; throw it on the dunghill!" 



12 



£90 SPURGEON 

The Masque Torn Off. 

By T. de Witt Talmage, D. D. 

With Mr. Talmage in preaching the gospel we 
are heartily at one, but from Mr. Talamge as an 
amateur detective we part company. It may not 
only be right to enter the dens of New York in 
order to expose their evils, but it may even be 
heroic to do so; it is not, however, a work which 
we would undertake for any consideration, nor one 
from which, according to our judgment, any great 
benefit can arise. Mr. Talmage seems to us to 
make small progress in depth of spirituality and 
fullness of divine experience, but to be straining 
himself to say striking things. This is not a state 
of things to be commended, and we hope that 
the preacher will grow out of it; at the same time 
we are sure that his sermons have charms for 
many minds, and that they do not deserve the 
savage condemnation which critics have poured 
upon them. 

A Man every Inch of Him: or, The Story of 
Frank Fuller ton' 's School-days. 

By J. Jackson Wray. 

Capital ! first-rate ! and every other adjective 
that will express our unmingled admiration of this 
book of books for English boys. Once let it be 
seen and dipped into, and no boy will be able to 
rest until he has read to the end; and then he'll 
want more. Why, it kept us up long after bed- 



THE EDITOR AT HIS DESK I9I 

time, made us laugh and cry just as it liked, and, 
when we left off, set us longing to be young again, 
took the wrinkles out of our face, and almost made 
our creaking limbs to grow supple ! Well done, 
Mr. Wray! You have given young and old boys 
alike a treat, and in the name of boydom in gen- 
eral, we vote you "a brick." It's just the book for 
a Christmas-box, a birthday present, or a prize 
gift, and we hope will be as plentifully scattered as 
snowflakes in January. 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE NEWSPAPER A BIBLE AND A TEXT-BOOK 

"I read the newspaper that I may see how my heavenly Father 
governs the world." — John Newton. 

" I believe that a great and good newspaper is as sacred in its 
own way as the Bible. It has something in it of the very present 
word of God to man, and the very present word of man to God." 

— Robert Collyer. 

Mr. Spurgeon was a Puritan at heart, as we 
have said before. He was not "a man of the 
world," and yet he was neither blind to what was 
going on about him, nor deaf to the voices that 
were sometimes harmonious and sometimes most 
discordant. He was a man of strong faith, and 
believed that this is God's world after all! That 
grand line of Robert Browning's: 

"God is in heaven! All's right with the world," 

fitly expresses the complacent confidence with 
which, especially in earlier years, Mr. Spurgeon 
looked on the tumult and the strifes of men. With 
an ever-observant eye he saw what many missed. 
And with an eye ever "single" God-ward, he saw 
relations in passing events that escaped the com- 
mon hasty glance. The history of every day re- 
vealed to him that God was moving in the affairs 
of men. And so the newspaper became a sort of 



THE NEWSPAPER A BIBLE 1 93 

later Bible, and in turn a text-book. Speaking 
of the newspaper, Mr. Spurgeon says: — 

"We have read the newspaper during the last 
three months that we might find illustrations of 
the teaching of our heavenly Father's Word; and 
we think we have not read in vain, for we have 
gathered instances in proof and facts in explana- 
tion which we have jotted down in these pages. 
The worlds of nature and of providence are full of 
parallels to things moral and spiritual, and serve 
as pictures to make the written book of inspiration 
more clear to the children of God. The Bible it- 
self abounds in metaphors, types, and symbols; it 
is a great picture-book; there is scarcely a poetical 
figure which may not be found in the law and the 
prophets, or in the words of Jesus and His apostles. 
The preacher is bidden to speak as the oracles of 
God, and consequently he should imitate their illus- 
trative method, and abound in emblems and para- 
bles. A sermon which is full of Mikes' is full of 
windows to enlighten the mind and hands to hold 
it captive. Discourses decked with similes will 
not only give pleasure to the children, but persons 
of riper years will be charmed and instructed 
thereby." 

In this chapter we have placed a few examples 
of Mr. Spurgeon's happy treatment of current 
events. 

BLAME THE SCALE-MAKER 

" The woman said, The serpent beguiled me and I did eat." 

— Gen. Hi: 13. 
" Every man shall bear his own burden." — Gen. vi: 5. 



194 SPURGEON 

The "South London Press," June 22, reports 
the following, among a number of other cases of 
unjust weights and measures: "A. B., cheese- 
monger. One machine. Defendant said he paid 
a scale-maker 30 s. 6 d. to attend to it, and the 
neglect was his. The chairman said one of 
the first things defendant should have attended 
to was the correctness of his scales and weights. 
Fined £1. Defendant thought the scale-maker 
ought to pay the fine. The clerk: 'We look to 
you ; we have nothing to do with the scale-maker. '" 

National law is based upon the principle of per- 
sonal responsibility, and it will not allow a trans- 
gressor to escape by pleading that he has shifted 
the burden of duty upon another. If in any case 
responsibility could be transferred, it surely should 
be under the circumstances before us; but the law 
knows nothing of scale-makers, it deals with trad- 
ers; and if anything be wrong with scales or weights 
it does not hold the shopkeeper guiltless, but visits 
the wrong upon him, even though he may have 
employed a person to keep his weights in order. 
This course appears to be severe, but it is both just 
and necessary; there would be no security for the 
purchaser, nor indeed for government itself, if the 
essential principle of personal responsibility could 
be departed from. Every man must bear his own 
burden. 

Yet this truth is too often put into the back- 
ground. In religion men have often acted as if 
they had altogether forgotten that it must of 



THE NEWSPAPER A BIBLE 195 

necessity be strictly personal. We hear of spon- 
sors promising and vowing no end of things, and 
of priests performing service and doing the devo- 
tions of others. Proxies, however, in such matters 
are a sheer delusion ; all true religion is a personal 
thing; men sin personally, and they must person- 
ally repent of that sin, or personally bear the guilt 
of it. No man can receive the new birth on be- 
half of another, nor can another man's faith ex- 
cuse us from believing in Jesus. Sanctification is 
not a boon to be vicariously received, any more 
than heaven can be vicariously enjoyed. A man 
may fancy that he pays a priest or a minister to 
do his religion for him, just as the tradesman paid 
the scale-maker; but the law does not recognize 
the transaction, it deals with principals only. We 
cannot leave our heavenly business in the hands of 
a clergyman as we place our secular affairs in the 
hands of a lawyer; we must believe in Jesus Christ 
on our own account, or judgment will go against 
us. It is true that in the matter of our justifica- 
tion before God, we have been redeemed by the 
blood of our Substitute, and are accepted in His 
imputed righteousness; but, in the practical appli- 
cation of the blessings thus procured, everything 
must be direct and personal. Another may pro- 
cure us food, but he cannot eat or digest it for us; 
Jesus has become our bread from heaven, but we 
must individually partake of Him if we would live 
forever. Another may bring us a candle, but we 
cannot see the light except with our own vision, — ■ 



I96 SPURGEON 

nay, more, even the Sun of Righteousness makes 
no man to see except by his own eyes. 

Never, then, let us leave our doctrinal views to 
be settled for us by the Church, but let us search 
the Scriptures for ourselves; let us not derive our 
peace and confidence from the good opinion of 
our pastor and the deacons, but aim at attaining a 
full assurance of our calling and election by the 
seal of the Spirit upon our own hearts; neither let 
us leave the work of the Lord to be discharged by 
others, but honestly render our fair share of the 
service. We must ask for grace to see to our own 
scales, and cease to leave to the scale-maker a 
matter which is altogether our own concern. 

THE EVIL WROUGHT BY ONE MAN 

" One sinner destroyeth much good." — Eccles. ix:i8. 

" That man perished not alone in his iniquity." 

— Josh. xxii:2o. 

An American paper contains the following para- 
graph: "An oil-train of forty oil-tanks ran into a 
heavy freight-train near Slatington, Pennsylvania. 
The engineer of the latter train had been com- 
pelled to stop to cool off a hot 'journal, ' but the 
conductor had sent no one back to warn following 
trains of danger. Several persons were killed and 
about forty injured — the result of one man's care- 
lessness." Amid the blaze of the oil, the screams 
of burning men and women, and the charred re- 
mains of the unhappy victims, we see how great a 
calamity may arise out of a little neglect, and how 
much the destiny of others may hang upon the 



THE NEWSPAPER A BIBLE 1 9? 

acts of one man. Have we a due sense of our own 
personal responsibility? Have we ever reflected that 
our own conduct may influence others for good or 
evil throughout eternity ? We may have no wicked 
intent, and yet our carelessness and indifference 
may be as fatal to immortal souls as if we had been 
profane or profligate. Moral virtues, apart from 
religion, may suggest to our children that godliness 
is needless; was not their father an excellent man, 
and yet he was unconverted? Thus may genera- 
tion after generation be kept in spiritual death by 
an argument fetched from the irreligion of one who 
was in other respects a model character. Who 
among us would desire this? 

Even if we hope that we are ourselves saved, it 
should cause us grave question if we are not bring- 
ing others to Jesus. 

A destroyer of souls will have an awful doom at 
the last, and he who failed to do his best to save 
his fellows will not be held guiltless before the 
Lord. 

ladies' dress 

"I will . . . that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, 
with shamefacedness and sobriety." — / Tim. it; 8, g. 

'•Be clothed with humility." — / Peter v: 5. 

On the nth of April, in the course of an action 
brought by the well-known modiste, "Madame 
Rosalie," against a gentleman of property to com- 
pel him to pay a debt contracted by his wife, it 
was stated in evidence that from $2, 500 to $10,- 
000 a year might be considered a reasonable sum 



I98 SPURGEON 

for a lady moving in good society to expend on 
dress. The gentleman's wife, in the witness-box, 
repudiated with lofty scorn the idea that the former 
amount was sufficient. The lady is an invalid, has 
never been presented at court, and is not called 
into company, and yet was indebted for millinery to 
a very large amount. 

Is it, then, a fact that so large a sum is con- 
sidered needful for the clothing of one human 
form? Surely the luxury of the old Roman empire 
is infecting our beloved country: may God grant 
that it may not, in our case also, be a sign of the 
decay of the nation. Women should be too con- 
siderate of the needs of the sick and suffering to 
spend their money so wastefully. A blanket placed 
on the bed of a poor old woman would be a better 
ornament to a lady's character than all the lace a 
dukedom could purchase. Yet so it is; but — tell 
it not in Gath — a lady cannot be dressed under 
$10,000 a year! 

Are we wrong if we place side by side with this 
modern fact a description of the follies of women 
of the olden times? "Moreover the Lord saith, 
Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and 
walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, 
walking and mincing as they go, and making a 
tinkling with their feet: therefore the Lord will 
smite with a scab the crown of the head of the 
daughters of Zion, and the Lord will discover their 
secret parts. In that day the Lord will take away 
the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their 



THE NEWSPAPER A BIBLE 1 99 

feet, and their cauls, and their round tires like the 
moon, the chains, and the bracelets, and the muf- 
flers, the -bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, 
and the headbands, and the tablets, and the ear- 
rings, the rings, and nose jewels, the changeable 
suits of apparel, and the mantles, and the wim- 
ples, and the crisping-pins, the glasses, and the 
fine linen, and the hoods and the vails." — Isaiah 
iii: 16-23. 

What a contrast is the teaching of the Apostle 
Peter, in his first epistle, at the third chapter: 
u Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorn- 
ing of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or 
of putting on of apparel, but let it be the hidden 
man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, 
even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, 
which is in the sight of God of great price. For 
after this manner in the old time the holy women 
also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, be- 
ing in subjection unto their own husbands." Peter 
sends the ladies to a wardrobe better than any 
which the frivolous possess, and to a jewel-case 
richer than ever belonged to the vain and showy; 
but, alas, the mass of women do not care to adorn 
themselves in this right royal fashion! Pride of 
dress is so childish that one wonders to see it in 
grown-up people. The old proverb speaks of be- 
ing twice children; but fops and dandies of either 
sex are always children. Archbishop Leighton has 
well said: "It is strange upon how poor things 
men and women will be vain, and think them- 



200 SPURGEON 

selves somebody; not only upon some comeliness 
in their face or feature, which, though poor, is yet 
a part of themselves, but of things merely without 
them; that they are well lodged, or well mounted, 
or well appareled, either richly or well in fashion. 
Light, empty minds are like bladders, blown up 
with anything." 

The only excuse we can think of for some dressy 
women is that they think themselves very ugly. 
What deformity must exist if it needs ten thou- 
sand a year to cover it ! If these persons accurately 
gauge their lack of personal charms, they must be 
suffering under a fearful measure of uncomeliness. 
Why, ten or twenty families could be reared in 
comparative comfort upon the amount thus ex- 
pended in wastefulness, and as matters go with 
the agricultural laborers in many of the shires, 
forty of the families owned by Hodge and his com- 
panions, including all the father Hodges and their 
wives, could be decently provided for upon ten 
thousand a year. It will not bear thinking of. 
Yet many women professing godliness are shock- 
ingly extravagant, and can never be happy till 
their heads are tricked out with strange gear and 
their bodies with fashionable millinery. They 
little think how much they degrade themselves 
and grieve the Spirit of God. A forgiven sinner 
decked out in the flaunting garments of a worldling, 
casts suspicion upon her own pardon. If she had 
ever been renewed in heart, would she, could she, 
adorn herself after the manner of a Jezebel ? It is 



THE NEWSPAPER A BIBLE 201 

hard to think of a disciple of the Lord wasting her 
substance upon personal decoration. Does the 
lowly Jesus keep company with persons who spend 
hours at the glass, adorning, if not adoring, their 
own flesh? Can extravagance and fashionableness 
be pleasing to the Lord? No. Assuredly not. 

We are not judging that "neat handsomeness" 
which George Herbert says "doth bear the sway," 
but we are sorrowful when we see those who set 
themselves up as examples, and move in a position 
where no outward show is required, going beyond 
ordinary worldly women in extravagance. It is 
the bane of society and the disgrace of religion. 

We wonder how much of the extravagance of 
female dress could be traced to the man-millinery 
of Anglican priests. Church congresses have been 
edified by exhibitions of ecclesiastical finery, in 
which were seen robes and vestments of the costli- 
est material and the gaudiest colors. We have 
read of altar frontals which have taken years to 
finish, and are valued at more than $2,500. All 
this to deck out a table! No wonder that it costs 
so much to dress a woman. When men, and even 
ministers, take to resplendent trappings, who can 
wonder that the weaker sex exercise a larger 
liberty? For shame, ye so-called priests, put away 
your baby garments, and quit yourselves like men ! 

THE RACE AND ITS SPECTATORS 

"Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a 
cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which 
doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is 
5et before us." -~Heb, xii:i. 



202 SPURGEON 

In an article upon the University boat-race of 
April 13, the "Times" alludes to the dense throng 
upon the banks of the river, and to the interest 
which everybody seemed to feel in the struggle, 
and it then very truthfully adds: — 

"Nor do the competitors themselves fail to gain 
much from the sight of the vast crowds which 
attest the strength of the popular interest. The 
rivalry would hardly be so keen if the race were to 
be rowed amid the comparative privacy of a pro- 
vincial stream or lake. Some years ago this was 
kept out of sight in a high and mighty way, by the 
suggestion that, to prevent the contest from being 
vulgarized, or for some other reason, it ought to 
be held at some quieter place than the neighbor- 
hood of London. Loch Maree, in the wilds of 
Ross-shire, would afford charming tranquillity and 
a few scores of cool spectators. But the stimulus 
of a great public competition would be gone, and 
if we may venture to assume that undergraduates 
are made of the same stuff as other human beings, 
that stimulus is essential to such muscular exertion 
as we see at Oxford and Cambridge." 

This excellently illustrates the meaning of the 
apostle when he represents believers as running 
for a prize, with saints, apostles, and martyrs look- 
ing on. The stimulus communicated by specta- 
tors is his prominent idea. No doubt the young 
oarsmen find a stimulus in every eye that gazes 
upon them, and if the crowd were thinned they 
would take less interest in their task. The crowds 



THE NEWSPAPER A BIBLE 203 

which line the Thames may well be compared to 
clouds, so completely do they darken the banks 
from end to end of the course; and much more 
may those who gaze upon the Christian's life be 
thus spoken of. Myriads lean from heaven, or look 
from earth, or peer upward from the pit. Holy 
men of all ages, now with God, join with a great 
host still abiding here below. Angels and prin- 
cipalities and powers unite as one vast army and 
observe us intently; and frowning demons of the 
pit in their dread array all gaze with interest upon 
the Christian's work and way. Should not every 
glance animate us to do our utmost? 

And what eyes there are among those who ob- 
serve us! Had the Queen been present, we could 
imagine the young athletes straining themselves 
even more than they had done, for the glance of 
royalty quickens energy to the utmost. In our 
case, the King of kings looks down upon us, and 
the Prince of Life with tender sympathy watches 
our progress. What manner of race should ours 
be under the Lord's own eye! Competitors of 
former years were at the boat-race to see whether 
the new-comers would maintain the honor of their 
university. Even so the worthies of ancient times, 
who counted not their lives dear unto them, take 
pleasure in the efforts of those who to-day are 
wrestling for victory, as they themselves did in 
ages past. The approving glances of prophets and 
apostles may well stir our souls. Dear ones who 
have gone before also mark our behavior in the 



204 SPURGEON 

race. A mother in heaven takes delight in the 
ardor of her son; brothers "gone over to the ma- 
jority" are serenely glad as they see their brothers 
pushing forward in the noble cause. Our leaders 
in the faith, oarsmen who taught us how to fly 
over the waves, regard as with anxious interest, 
and joy in our successes. These things should 
quicken us, and lend us arguments for unabated 
energy. 

Of course the apostle was not alluding to a boat- 
race, but to the Olympian games. Those games 
furnish a suggestive figure, which we leave the 
reader to work out at leisure, when we have given 
him a glimpse at the race from the window of good 
Dr. John Brown: 

"At Olympia, a town of Elis, games were cele- 
brated in honor of Jupiter once every five years. 
An almost incredible multitude, from all the states 
of Greece and from the surrounding countries, 
attended these games as spectators. The noblest 
of the Grecian youths appeared as competitors. 
In this race, a course was marked out for the can- 
didates for public fame, and a tribunal erected at 
the end of the course, on which sat the judges — 
men who had themselves in former years been suc- 
cessful competitors for Olympic honors. The vic- 
tors in the morning contests did not receive their 
prizes till the evening; but after their exertions 
they joined the band of spectators, and looked on 
while others prosecuted the same arduous labors 
which they had brought to an honorable termina- 
tion." 



THE NEWSPAPER A BIBLE 205 

It is a fine thought that those honorable men in 
the Church of God who have themselves behaved 
worthily, take the deepest interest in the young 
men who have newly set out upon the race. Let 
the youngsters so behave themselves that the vet- 
erans may never fear for the cause of God. We 
know that a great deal of anxiety is felt just now, for 
the rising race shows signs of being unstable and 
superficial, but we hope for better things, and even 
trust that the men of the coming age will outstrip 
their predecessors, and draw forth the approving 
shouts of the encompassing cloud of witnesses. 



13 



CHAPTER XIV 

PSALMS AND HYMNS AND SPIRITUAL SONGS 

"Sing unto Him, sing psalms unto Him: talk ye of all His won- 
drous works." — David. 

"Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual 
songs, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord. " 

—Paul. 

Neither Mr. Spurgeon nor his warmest admirers 
would claim for him the genius of the poet. He 
himself would have been the first to protest against 
any such claim made on his behalf. And yet 
occasionally he indulged in the luxury of writing 
verse, a few examples of which will not be unwel - 
come to the readers of this volume. All birds are 
not nightingales, and yet the thrush and the robin 
and the lark, have a right to sing their songs. 
Even the chirp of the sparrow is welcome after the 
long silence of winter. If Mr. Spurgeon had been 
disposed to justify his occasional "dropping into 
poetry," he would probably have quoted Paul's 
words, and in the exposition thereof he might have 
suggested that it is much better to make melody in 
the heart to the Lord, even with feeble poetry, than 
to go grumbling all the day long. He delighted 
chiefly in paraphrases of the psalms. His compi- 
lation of "Our Own Hymn Book" gives evidence 
that he possessed excellent judgment in the mat- 
ter of devotional poetry. 

206 



PSALMS AND HYMNS AND SPIRITUAL SONGS 207 

"be thou exalted king of kings" 
psalm xxi 

Thy strength, O Lord, makes glad our King, 
Who once in weakness bowed the head; 

Salvation makes His heart to sing, 

For Thou hast raised Him from the dead. 

Thou hast bestowed His heart's desires, 
Showered on His path Thy blessings down; 

His royal pomp all heaven admires; 
Thou on His head hast set the crown. 

A life eternal as Thy years, 

A glory infinite like Thine, 
Repays Him for His groans and tears, 

And fills His soul with joy divine. 

O King, beloved of our souls, 

Thine own right hand shall find Thy foes! 
Swift o'er their necks Thy chariot rolls, 

And earth Thy dreadful vengeance knows. 

As glowing oven is Thy wrath, 

As flame by furious blast upblown; 

With equal heat Thy love breaks forth, 
Like wall of fire around Thine own. 

Be Thou exalted, King of Kings! 

In Thine own strength sit Thou on high! 
Thy Church Thy triumph loudly sings, 

And lauds Thy glorious Majesty. 

A PRAYER FROM ZI0N* S HOLY HILL 
PSALM XV 

Lord, I would dwell with Thee 

On Thy most holy hill. 
Oh, shed Thy grace abroad in me, 

To mold me to Thy will. 



208 SPURGEON 

Thy gate of pearl stands wide. 

For those who walk upright; 
But those who basely turn aside 

Thou chasest from Thy sight. 

Oh, tame my tongue to peace, 
And tune my heart to love; 

From all reproaches may I cease, 
Made harmless as a dove. 

The vile, though proudly great, 

No flatterer find in me; 
I count Thy saints of poor estate 

Far nobler company. 

Faithful, but meekly kind, 

Gentle, yet boldly true, 
I would possess the perfect mind 

Which in my Lord I view. 

But, Lord, these graces all 
Thy Spirit's work must be; 

To Thee, through Jesus' blood I call — 
Create them all in me. 

MAKE HASTE, O GOD 
PSALM LXXV 

Make haste, O God, my soul to bless, 
My help and my deliverer Thou! 

Make haste! for I'm in deep distress, 
My case is urgent — help me now! 

Make haste, O God! make haste to save! 

For time is short and death is nigh! 
Make haste! ere yet I'm in my grave, 

And with the lost forever lie. 

Make haste! for I am poor and low, 
And Satan mocks my prayers and tears; 

O God, in mercy be not slow, 

But snatch me from my horrid fears. 



PSALMS AND HYMNS AND SPIRITUAL SONGS 200, 

Make haste, O God, and hear my cries! 

Then, with the souls who seek Thy face, 
And those who Thy salvation prize, 

I'll magnify Thy matchless grace. 

JESUS, POOREST OF THE POOR 
PSALM XLI 

Jesus, poorest of the poor! 

Man of sorrows! Child of grief! 
Happy they whose bounteous store 

Ministered to Thy relief. 

Jesus, though Thy head is crowned, 
Crowned with loftiest majesty, 

In Thy members Thou art found 
Plunged in deepest poverty. 

Happy they who wash Thy feet, 

Visit Thee in Thy distress! 
Honor great, and labor sweet, 

For Thy sake the saints to bless! 

They who feed Thy sick and faint, 

For Thyself a banquet find; 
They who clothe the naked saint, 

Round Thy loins the raiment bind. 

Thou wilt keep their soul alive, 
From their foes protect their head; 

Languishing, their strength revive, 
And in sickness make their bed. 

Thou wilt deeds of love repay; 

Grace shall generous hearts reward 
Here on earth, and in the day 

When they meet their reigning Lord. 

IMMANUEL 
This beautiful poem was written by Mr. Spurgeon in his eighteenth year, 

When once I mourned a load of sin; 
When conscience felt a wound within; 



tlO SPURGEON 

When all my works were thrown away; 

When on my knees I knelt to pray, 
Then, blissful hour, remembered well, 
I learned Thy love, Immanuel. 

When storms of sorrow toss my soul; 

When waves of care around me roll; 

When comforts sink, when joys shall flee; 

When hopeless griefs shall gape for me, 
One word the tempest's rage shall quell- 
That word, Thy name, Immanuel. 

When for the truth I surfer shame; 

When foes pour scandal on my name; 

When cruel taunts and jeers abound; 

When "Bulls of Bashan" gird me round, 
Secure within Thy tower I'll dwell — 
That tower, Thy grace, Immanuel. 

When hell enraged lifts up her roar; 
When Satan stops my path before; 
When fiends rejoice and wait my end; 
When legioned hosts their arrows send, 

Fear not, my soul, but hurl at hell 

Thy battle-cry, Immanuel. 

When down the hill of life I go; 
When o'er my feet death's waters flow; 
When in the deep'ning flood I sink; 
When friends stand weeping on the brink, 

I'll mingle with my last farewell 

Thy lovely name, Immanuel. 

When tears are banished from mine eye; 
When fairer worlds than these are nigh; 
When heaven shall fill my ravished sight; 
When I shall bathe in sweet delight, 

One joy all joys shall far excel, 

To see Thy face, Immanuel. 



PSALMS AND HYMNS AND SPIRITUAL SONGS 211 



MARRIED LOVE — TO MY WIFE 

A pathetic interest marks this poem as we read it to-day in the light of 
the fact that Mrs. Spurgeon now walks the path of life alone. Mr. Spur- 
geon had gone to Hull to preach in the early years of his married life, and 
while absent from home he sent this loving message to his young wife. 

Over the space that parts us, my wife, 

I'll cast me a bridge of song; 
Our hearts shall meet, O joy of my life, 

On its arch unseen, but strong. 



The wooer his new love's name may wear 

Engraved on a precious stone; 
But in my heart thine image I wear, 

That heart has long been thine own. 

The glowing colors on surface laid, 

Wash out in a shower of rain; 
Thou needs't not be of rivers afraid, 

For my love is dyed ingrain. 

And as every drop of Garda's lake 

Is tinged with sapphire's blue, 
So all the powers of my mind partake 

Of joy at the thought of you. 

The glittering dewdrops of dawning love 

Exhale as the day grows old; 
And fondness, taking the wings of a dove, 

Is gone like a tale of old. 

But mine for thee, from the chambers of joy, 
With strength came forth as the sun; 

Nor life nor death shall its force destroy, 
Forever its course shall run. 

All earth-born love must sleep in the grave, 

To its native dust return; 
What God hath kindled shall death out-brave 

And in heaven itself shall burn. 



212 SPURGEON* 

Beyond and abcve the wedlock tie 

Our union to Christ we feel; 
Uniting bonds which were made on high 

Shall hold us when earth shall reel. 

Though He who chose us all worlds before, 
Must reign in our hearts alone, 

We fondly believe that we shall adore 
Together before His throne. 



CHAPTER XV 

ECHOES FROM THE TABERNACLE PULPIT 

" I preached that which I felt, and that which I felt most smart- 
ingly." — John Bunyan. 

" That which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, 
which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the 
Word of Life That which we have seen and heard, de- 
clare we unto you.'* — John the Evangelist. 

To the often-asked question, "Wherein lay the 
secret of Mr. Spurgeon's wonderful success as a 
preacher?" there is but one wise answer, and that 
is at once brief and simple. The secret of the 
whole matter lies in the fact that — he preached. 
He did not read an essay, he did not discuss a 
theme, he did not indulge in the elaboration of pet 
theories, — he preached! He was a "voice" crying 
in the great wilderness of London, "Repent, the 
kingdom of God is at your doors." He believed 
he had received a message from God to men, and 
it was his business to deliver that message. He 
was a forthteller. There were no tricks of oratory 
in Mr. Spurgeon's preaching, no affectation, no 
efforts after eloquence, scarcely ever a perora- 
tion, and if ever one came, it came as the outburst 
of sudden emotion, without any mark of design. 
He used the uttermost simplicity of speech; he 
was both rich and apt in illustration; but, above 

213 



214 SPURGEON 

all, he was intensely in earnest. Preaching was 
not a profession, it was a passion, it was the very 
life of his life. The possession of remarkable 
powers — a musical voice, a vocabulary rich and sim- 
ple, a ready wit— will account for much; but not 
all. Mr. Spurgeon consecrated all his powers to 
the very uttermost to that work which was the 
chief joy of his life. He preached a living man to 
living men, and his preaching was for the life that 
is and for the life that is to come. These echoes 
from the Tabernacle pulpit have been gathered 
from the whole area of his preaching through a 
ministry of forty years. 

A TERRIBLE PARABLE 

Hast thou never fled to Christ for refuge? Dost 
thou not believe in the Redeemer? Hast thou 
never confided thy soul to his hands? Then hear 
me; in God's name, hear me just a moment. My 
friend, I would not stand in thy position for an 
hour, for all the stars twice spelt in gold! For 
what is thy position ? Thou hast sinned, and God 
will not acquit thee; he will punish thee. He is 
letting thee live; thou art reprieved. Poor is the 
life of one that is reprieved without a pardon! Thy 
reprieve will soon run out; thine hour-glass is 
emptying every day. I see on some of you Death 
has put his cold hand, and frozen your hair to 
whiteness. Ye need your staff, it is the only bar- 
rier between you and the grave now; and you are, 
all of you, old and young, standing on a narrow 



ECHOES FROM THE TABERNACLE PULPIT 2 I 5 

neck of land, between two boundless seas — that 
neck of land, that isthmus of life, narrowing every 
moment, and you are yet unpardoned. There is 
a city to be sacked, and you are in it — soldiers are 
at the gates; the command is given that every 
man in the city is to be slaughtered save he who 
can give the password. "Sleep on, sleep on; the 
attack is not to-day; sleep on, sleep on." "But 
it is to-morrow, sir." "Aye, sleep on, sleep on; 
it is not till to-morrow; sleep on, procrastinate, 
procrastinate." "Hark! I hear a rumbling at the 
gates; the battering ram is at them; the gates are 
tottering." "Sleep on, sleep on; the soldiers are 
not yet at your doors; sleep on, sleep on; ask for 
no mercy yet; sleep on, sleep on!" "Aye, but 
I hear the shrill clarion sound ; they are in the 
streets. Hark, to the shrieks of men and women ! 
They are slaughtering them; they fall, they fall, 
they fall!" "Sleep on; they are not yet at your 
door." "But hark! they are at the gate; with 
heavy tramp I hear the soldiers marching up the 
stairs!" "Nay, sleep on, sleep on; they are not 
yet in your room." "Why, they are there; they 
have burst open the door that parted you from 
them, and there they stand!" "No, sleep on, sleep 
on; the sword is not yet at your throat; sleep on, 
sleep on!" It is at your throat; you start with 
horror. Sleep on, sleep on ! But you are gone ! 
"Demon, why didst thou tell me to slumber! It 
would have been wise in me to have escaped the 
city when first the gates were shaken. Why did 



2l6 SPURGEON 

I not ask for the password before the troops came? 
Why, by all that is wise, why did I not rush into 
the streets, and cry the password when the soldiers 
tvere there? Why stood I till the knife was at my 
throat? Aye, demon that thou art, be cursed; but 
I am cursed with thee forever!" You know the 
application; it is a parable you can all expound. 

THE KEEPER OF THE LIGHTHOUSE 

I am like the good man and his wife who had 
kept a lighthouse for years. A visitor, who came 
to see the lighthouse, looking out from the win- 
dow over the waste of waters, asked the good 
woman, "Are you not afraid at night, when the 
storm is out, and the big waves dash right over 
the lantern ? Do you not fear that the lighthouse, 
and all that is in it, will be carried away? I am 
sure I should be afraid to trust myself in a slender 
tower in the midst of the great billows." The 
woman remarked that the idea never occurred to 
her now. She had lived there so long that she 
felt as safe on the lone rock as ever she did when 
she lived on the mainland. As for her husband, 
when asked if he did not feel anxious when the 
wind blew a hurricane, he answered, "Yes, I feel 
anxious to keep the lamps well trimmed, and the 
light burning, lest any vessel should be wrecked." 
As to anxiety about the safety of the lighthouse, 
or his own personal security in it, he had outlived 
all that. Even so it is with the full-grown be- 
liever. He can humbly say, "I know whom I 



ECHOES FROM THE TABERNACLE PULPIT 2\J 

have believed, and am persuaded that He is able 
to keep that which I have committed unto Him 
against that day." From henceforth let no man 
trouble me with doubts and questionings; I bear 
in my soul the proofs of the Spirit's truth and 
power, and I will have none of your artful reason- 
ings. The gospel to me is truth. I am content 
to perish if it be not true. ' I risk my soul's eter- 
nal fate upon the truth of the gospel, and I know 
that there is no risk in it. My one concern is to 
keep the lights burning, that I may thereby benefit 
others. 

SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS 

Self-righteousness is also much promoted by the 
almost universal spirit of trifling which is now 
abroad. Only while men trifle with themselves 
can they entertain the idea of personal merit before 
God. He who comes to serious thought, and be- 
gins to understand the character of God, before 
whom the heavens are not pure, and the angels 
are charged with folly — he, I say, that comes to 
serious thought and beholds a true vision of God, 
abhors himself in dust and ashes, and is forever 
silenced as to any thought of self-justification. It 
is because we do not seriously examine our condi- 
tion that we think ourselves rich and increased in 
goods. A man may fancy that he is prospering in 
business, and yet he may be going back in the 
world. If he does not face -his books or take 
stock, he may be living in a fool's paradise, spend- 



2 1 8 SPURGEON 

ing largely when on the verge of bankruptcy. 
Many think well of themselves because they never 
think seriously. They do not look below the sur- 
face, and hence they are deceived by appearances. 
The most troublesome business to many men is 
thought and the last thing they will do is to weigh 
their actions, or test their motives, or ponder their 
ways, to see whether things be right with them. 
Self-righteousness being supported by ignorance, 
by pride, by unbelief, and by the natural super- 
ficiality of the human mind, is strongly entrenched 
and cannot readily be driven out of men. 

Yet self-righteousness is evidently evil, for it 
makes light of sin. It talks of merit in the case of 
one who has already transgressed, and boasts of 
excellence in reference to a fallen and depraved 
creature. It prattles of little faults, small failures, 
and slight omissions, and so makes sin to be a venial 
error which may be readily overlooked. Not so 
faith in God, for though it recognizes pardon, yet 
that pardon is seen to come in a way which proves 
sin to be exceedingly sinful. On the other hand, the 
doctrine of salvation by works has not a word of 
comfort in it for the fallen. It gives to the elder 
son all that his proud heart can claim, but for the 
prodigal it has no welcome. The law has no in- 
vitation for the sinner, for it knows nothing of 
mercy. If salvation be by the works of the law, 
what must become of the guilty, and the fallen, 
and the abandoned? By what hopes can these be 
recalled? This unmerciful doctrine bars the door 



ECHOES FROM THE TABERNACLE PULPIT 219 

of hope, and hands over the lost ones to the exe- 
cutioner, in order that the proud Pharisee may air 
his boastful righteousness, and thank God that he 
is not as other men are. 

It is the intense selfishness of this doctrine 
which condemns it as an evil thing. It naturally 
exalts self. If a man conceives that he will be 
saved by his own works, he thinks himself some- 
what, and glories in the dignity of human nature: 
when he has been attentive to religious exercises 
he rubs his hands and feels that he deserves well 
of his Maker; he goes home to repeat his prayers, 
and ere he falls asleep he wonders how he can have 
grown to be so good and so much superior to those 
around him. When he walks abroad he feels as 
if he dwelt apart in native excellence, a person 
much distinguished from "the vulgar herd," a being 
whom to know is to admire. All the while he 
considers himself to be very humble, and is often 
amazed at his own condescension. What is this 
but a most hateful spirit ? 

IGNORANT OF THE PLAN OF SALVATION 

I had heard the plan of salvation by the sacrifice 
of Jesus from my youth up, but I did not know 
any more about it in my innermost soul than if I 
had been born and bred a Hottentot. The light 
was there, but I was blind ; it was of necessity 
that the Lord himself should make the matter 
plain to me. It came to me as a new revelation, 
as fresh as if I had never read in Scripture that 



220 SPURGEON 

Jesus was declared to be the propitiation for sin 
that God might be just. I believe it will have to 
tome as a revelation to every new-born child of 
God whenever he sees it; I mean that glorious 
doctrine of the substitution of the Lord Jesus. I 
came to understand that salvation was possible 
through vicarious sacrifice; and that provision had 
been made in the first constitution and arrange- 
ment of things for such a substitution. I was 
made to see that He who is the Son of God, co- 
equal and co-eternal with the Father, had of old 
been made the covenant head of a chosen people, 
that He might in that capacity suffer for them and 
save them. Inasmuch as our fall was not at the 
first a personal one, for we fell in our federal re- 
presentative, the first Adam, it became possible 
for us to be recovered by a second representative, 
even by Him who has undertaken to be the cove- 
nant head of His people, so as to be their second 
Adam. I saw that ere I actually sinned I had fall- 
en by my first father's sin; and I rejoiced that 
therefore it became possible in point of law for me 
to rise by a second head and representative. The 
fall by Adam left a loophole of escape; another 
Adam can undo the ruin made by the first. When 
I was anxious about the possibility of a just God 
pardoning me, I understood and saw by faith that 
He who is the Son of God became man, and in His 
own blessed person bore my sin in His own body 
on the tree. I saw the chastisement of my peace 
was laid on Him, and that with His stripes I was 



ECHOES FROM THE TABERNACLE PULPIT 221 

healed. Dear friend, have you ever seen that? 
Have you ever understood how God can be just to 
the full, not remitting penalty nor blunting the 
edge of the sword, and yet can be infinitely merci- 
ful, and can justify the ungodly who turn to Him? 
It was because the Son of God, supremely glorious 
in His matchless person, undertook to vindicate 
the lav/ by bearing the sentence due to me, that 
therefore God is able to pass by my sin. The law 
of God was more vindicated by the death of Christ 
than it would have been had all transgressors been 
sent to hell. For the Son of God to suffer for sin 
was a more glorious establishment of the govern- 
ment of God, than for the whole race to suffer. 

COME IN YOUR DESHABILLE 

Do not attempt to touch yourself up and make 
yourself something other than you really are; but 
come as you are to Him who justifies the ungodly. 
A great artist some short time ago had painted a 
part of the corporation of the city in which he 
lived, and he wanted, for historic purposes, to in- 
clude in his picture certain characters well known 
in the town. A crossing-sweeper, unkempt, rag- 
ged, filthy, was known to everybody, and there 
was a suitable place for him in the picture. The 
artist said to this ragged and rugged individual, 
"I will pay you well if you will come down to my 
studio and let me take your likeness." He came 
round in the morning, but he was soon sent about 
his business; for he had washed his face, and 



222 SPURGEON 

combed his hair, and donned good clothes. He 
was needed as a beggar, and was not invited in 
any other capacity. Even so, the gospel will 
receive you into its halls if you come as a sinner, 
but not else. Wait not for reformation, but come 
at once for salvation. God justifieth the ungodly, 
and that takes you up where you now are. It 
meets you in your worst estate. 

Come in your deshabille. I mean, corns to 
your heavenly Father in all your sin and sinful- 
ness. Come to Jesus just as you are, leprous, 
filthy, naked, neither fit to live nor fit to die. 
Come, you that are the very sweepings of crea- 
tion; come, though you hardly dare to hope for 
anything but death. Come, though despair is 
brooding over you, pressing upon your bosom like 
a horrible nightmare. Come and ask the Lord to 
justify another ungodly one. Why should He not? 
Come along with you ; for this great mercy of God 
is meant for such as you are. I put it in the lan- 
guage of the text, and I cannot put it more strong- 
ly — the Lord God himself takes to himself this 
gracious title, "Him that justifieth the ungodly." 
He makes just, and causes to be treated as just, 
those who by nature are ungodly. Is not that a 
wonderful word for you? Reader, do not rise from 
your seat till you have well considered this matter. 

THE ATLANTIC CABLE 

What a wonderful thing is that union between 
God and the sinner! We have all been thinking a 



ECHOES FROM THE TABERNACLE PULPIT 223 

great deal lately about the Atlantic Cable. It is a 
very interesting attempt to join two worlds to- 
gether. That poor cable, you know, has had to 
be sunk into the depths of the sea, in the hope of 
establishing a union between the two worlds, and 
now we are disappointed again. But, oh! what 
an infinitely greater wonder has been accomplished. 
Christ Jesus saw the two worlds divided, and the 
great Atlantic of human guilt rolled between. He 
sank down deep into the woes of man till all God's 
waves and billows had gone over Him, that He 
might be, as it were, the great telegraphic communi- 
cation between God and the apostate race, between 
the Most Holy One and poor sinners. Let me say 
to you, sinner, there was no failure in the laying 
down of that blessed cable. It went down deep; 
the end was well secured, and it went down deep 
into the depths of our sin, and shame, and woe; 
and on the other side it has gone right up to the 
eternal throne, and is fastened there eternally 
fast, by God himself. You may work that tele- 
graph to-day, and you may easily understand the 
art of working it too. A sigh will work it; a tear 
will work it. Say, "God be merciful to me a sin- 
ner," and along the wire the message will flash, 
and will reach God before it comes from you. It 
is swifter far than earthly telegraphs; ay, and 
there will come an answer back much sooner than 
you ever dream of, for it is promised — "Before 
they call I will answer, and while they are yet 
speaking I will hear." Who ever heard of such a 



224 SPURGEON 

communication as this between man and man; but 
it really does exist between sinners and God, since 
Christ has opened up a way from the depths of 
our sin to the heights of His glory. 

This is for you who are at a distance from Him, 
but He has done more for us who are saved, for He 
has taken us right across the Atlantic of our sin 
and set us down on the other side; He has taken 
us out of our sinful state, and put us into the 
Father's bosom, and there we shall dwell forever 
in the heart of God as His own dear children. 

I would to God that some might now be led to 
look to the Savior, that some would come with 
weeping and with tears to him, and say, 

" • Jesus, lover of my soul, 
Let me to thy bosom fly.' 

Take my case, and arbitrate for me; I accept 
Thine atonement; I trust in Thy precious blood; 
only receive me and I will rejoice in Thee forever 
with joy unspeakable and full of glory." 

OPEN WIDE THE DOOR 

When the brazen serpent was lifted up in the 
wilderness, the people were not to look to Moses, 
nor to the Tabernacle, nor to the pillar of cloud, 
but to the brazen serpent itself. Looking was not 
enough unless they looked to the right object ; and 
the right object was not enough unless they looked. 
It was not enough for them to know about the 
serpent of brass; they must each one look to it for 
himself. When a man is ill, he may have- a good 



ECHOES FROM THE TABERNACLE PULPIT 22$ 

knowledge of medicine, and yet he may die if he 
does not actually take the healing draught. We 
must receive Jesus; for "to as many as received 
Him, to them gave He power to become the sons 
of God." Lay the emphasis on two words: We 
must receive HIM, and we must receive Him. 
We must open wide the door, and take Christ 
Jesus in; for "Christ in you" is "the hope of glory." 
Christ must be no myth, no dream, no phantom 
to us, but a real man, and truly God; and our 
rceeption of Him must be no forced and feigned ac- 
ceptance, but the hearty and happy assent and 
consent of the soul that He shall be the all in all of 
our salvation. Will we not at once come to Him, 
and make Him our sole trust ? 

I WOULD TO GOD WE HAD MORE PLUCK 

The common policy of our churches is that of 
great prudence. We do not, as a rule, attempt 
anything beyond our strength. We measure means 
and calculate possibilities with economical accu- 
racy, then we strike off a large discount for contin- 
gencies, and a still larger as provision for our ease, 
and so we accomplish little because we have no 
idea of doing much. I would to God we had 
more "pluck." I know of no fitter word; though 
the word may better suit the camp than the 
church, we will for once borrow from the barracks. 
Bear in mind that there is nothing like courage, 
even in ordinary things. Sir Richard Sutton, 
when he was ambassador to Prussia, was taken 



226 SPURGEON 

by Frederick the Great to see his regiment of 
giants, every one of whom stood six feet six in his 
shoes. The king said to him, "Do you think any 
regiment in the English army could fight my men, 
man for man?" Sir Richard answered, "Please 
your majesty, I do not know whether the same 
number could beat your giants, but I know that 
half the number would try at it." Let us attempt 
great things, for those who believe in the name 
of the Lord succeed beyond all expectation. By 
faith the worker lives. 

BELIEVERS IN NOTHING 

Certain thinkers have reached the blessed ulti- 
matum of believing nothing at all with anything 
like certainty of belief. When these cultivated 
persons speak of us they manifest great scorn, and 
affect to believe that we are natural fools. Ah, 
dear! People are not always what they are thought 
to be, and it may happen that a man sees himself 
as in a glass when he thinks he is looking out of 
window at a neighbor. It is a sign of great weak- 
ness when persons are full of contempt for others. 
If in any review or pamphlet a writer parades 
his culture, you may be sure that he has been 
lying fallow of late, and his affectations are the 
weeds which have come of it. If it came to a fair 
contest upon the matter of education and culture 
the orthodox would be quite able to hold their 
own. Boasting is sorry work; but sometimes per- 
sons must be answered according to their folly, 



ECHOES FROM THE TABERNACLE PULPIT 227 

and I say boldly that in any sort of mental tourna- 
ment we should not tremble to tilt with the men 
of "modern thought." Be it so or not, it is ours 
to believe. We believe that when the Lord our 
God gave forth a revelation He knew His own 
mind, and that He expressed Himself in the best 
and wisest manner, and in terms that can be un- 
derstood by those who are teachable and truthful. 
We therefore believe that no new revelation is 
needed, and that the idea of other light to come 
is practically unbelief in the light which now is, 
seeing the light of truth is one. We believe that 
though the Bible has been twisted and turned 
about by sacrilegious hands, it is still the infallible 
revelation of God. It is a main part of our re- 
ligion humbly to accept what God has revealed. 
Perhaps the highest form of adoration possible on 
this side the veil is the bowing of our entire men- 
tal and spiritual being before the revealed mind of 
God; the kneeling of the understanding in that 
sacred Presence whose glory causes angels to veil 
their faces. Let those who please worship science, 
reason, and their own clear judgment; it is ours to 
submit ourselves before the Lord our God. 

IN THE GALLERIES OF VERSAILLES 

The upper galleries at Versailles are rilled with 
portraits, many of them extremely valuable and 
ancient. These are the likenesses of the greatest 
men of all lands and ages, drawn by the ablest 
artists. Yet most visitors wander through the 



228 SPURGEOX 

rooms with little or no interest; in fact, after 
noticing one or two of the more prominent pict- 
ures, they hasten through the suite of chambers 
and descend to the other floors. Notice the change 
when the sight-seers come to fine paintings like 
those of Horace Vernet, where the men and women 
are not inactive portraits but are actively engaged. 
There the warrior who was passed by without 
notice upstairs, is seen hewing his way to glory 
over heaps of slain, or the statesman is observed 
delivering himself of weighty words before an as- 
sembly of princes and peers. Not the men, but 
their actions, engross attention. Portraits have no 
charm when scenes of stirring interest are set in 
rivalry with them. After all, then, let us be who 
or what we may, we must bestir ourselves or be 
mere nobodies, chips in the porridge, forgotten 
shells of the shore. If we would impress we 
must act. The dignity of standing still will never 
win the prize, we must run for it. Our influence 
over our times will arise mainly from our doing 
and suffering the will of God, not from our office 
or person. Life, life in earnest, life for God, this 
will tell on the age; but mere orderliness and pro- 
priety, inactive and passionless, will be utterly 
inoperative. 

THREE DAYS WITHOUT SUNRISE 

If kingdoms should go to rack the Christian 
need not tremble. Just for a minute imagine a 
scene like this: Suppose for the next three days 



ECHOES FROM THE TABERNACLE PULPIT 229 

the sun should not rise; suppose the moon should 
be turned into a clot of blood, and shine no more 
upon the world; imagine that a darkness that 
might be felt brooded over all men; imagine next 
that all the world did tremble in an earthquake 
till every tower and house and hut fell down; im- 
agine next that the sea forgot its place and leaped 
upon the earth, and that the mountains ceased to 
stand, and began to tremble from their pedestals; 
conceive after that a blazing comet streamed across 
the sky — that the thunder bellowed incessantly — 
that the lightnings without a moment's pause fol- 
lowed one the other; conceive then that thou didst 
behold divers terrible sights, fiendish ghosts and 
grim spirits; imagine next that a trumpet, waxing 
exceeding loud, did blow; that there were heard 
the shrieks of men dying and perishing; imagine 
that in the midst of all this confusion there was to be 
found a saint. My friend, "Jesus Christ, the same 
yesterday, to-day, and forever," would keep him as 
secure amidst all these horrors as we are to-day. 
Oh! rejoice! I have pictured the worst that can 
come. Then you would be secure. Come what 
may then, you are safe, while Jesus Christ is the 
same. 

god's case against man 

Let us listen while the great Creator speaks: 
may God give me grace now reverently to state it 
in his name, as one poor sinner stating God's case 
against us all. "Hear, O heavens, and give ear, 



230 SPURGEON 

O earth: for the Lord hath spoken, I have nour- 
ished and brought up children, and they have re- 
belled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, 
and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not 
know, my people doth not consider. Ah, sinful 
nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil 
doers, children that are corrupters: they have 
forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy 
One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away back- 
ward." The Eternal God charges us, and let me 
confess at once most justly and most truly charges 
us, with having broken all His commandments — 
some of them in act, some of them in word, all of 
them in heart, and thought, and imagination. He 
charges upon us, that against light and knowledge 
we have chosen the evil and forsaken the good; 
that knowing what we were doing we have turned 
aside from His most righteous law and have gone 
astray like lost sheep, following the imaginations 
and devices of our own hearts. The great Plaint- 
iff claims that inasmuch as we are His creatures 
we ought to have obeyed Him, that inasmuch as 
we owe our very lives to His daily care we ought 
to have rendered Him service instead of disobedi- 
ence, and to have been His loyal subjects instead 
of turning traitors to His throne. All this, calmly 
and dispassionately, according to the great Book 
of the law, is laid to our charge before the Days- 
man. No exaggeration of sin is brought against 
us. It is simply declared of us that the whole 
head is sick and the whole heart is faint ; that 



ECHOES FROM THE TABERNACLE PULPIT ±$\ 

there is none that doeih good, no, not one; that 
we have all gone out of the way, and altogether 
become unprofitable. This is God's case. He 
says, "I made this man; curiously was he wrought 
in the lowest parts of the earth; and all his mem- 
bers bear traces of my singular handiwork. I 
made him for my honor, and he has not honored 
me. I created him for my service, and he has not 
served me. Twenty, thirty, forty, fifty years I have 
kept the breath in his nostrils; the bread he has 
eaten has been the daily portion of my bounty; his 
garments are the livery of my charity; and all this 
while he has neither thought of me, his Creator 
and Preserver, nor done anything in my service. 
He has served his family, his wife and children, 
but his Maker he has despised." 

IGNORANCE AND PRIDE 

Men are ignorant of the law of God, and of what 
holiness really is. If they knew that even an evil 
thought is a breach of the law, and that the law 
once broken in any point is altogether violated, 
they would be at once convinced that there can be 
no righteousness by the law to those who have 
already offended against it. They are also in great 
ignorance concerning themselves, for those very 
persons who talk about self-righteousness are as a 
rule openly chargeable with fault ; and if not, were 
they to sit down and really look at their own lives, 
they would soon perceive even in their best works 
such impurity of motive beforehand, or such pride 



2 12 SPURGEON 

and self-congratulation afterv ards, that they would 
see the gloss taken off from all their performances, 
and they would be utterly ashamed of them. Nor 
is it ignorance alone which leads men to self- 
righteousness, they are also deceived by pride. 
Man cannot endure to be saved on the footing of 
mercy; he loves not to plead guilty and throw 
himself on the favor of the great King; he cannot 
brook to be treated as a pauper, and blessed as a 
matter of charity; he desires to have a finger in 
his own salvation, and claim at least a little credit 
for it. Proud man will not have heaven itself 
upon terms of grace ; but so long as he can he sets 
up one plea or another, and holds to his own 
righteousness as though it were his life. This self- 
confidence also arises from wicked unbelief, for 
through his self-conceit man will not believe God. 
Nothing is more plainly revealed in Scripture than 
this, — that by the works of the law shall no man 
be justified; yet men in some shape or other stick 
to the hope of legal righteousness; they will have 
it that they must prepare for grace, or assist mercy, 
or in some degree deserve eternal life. They pre- 
fer their own flattering prejudices to the declara- 
tion of the heart-searching God. 

FREE, GRATIS, FOR NOTHING 

I heard a story; I think it came from the North 
Country: — A minister called upon a poor woman, 
intending to give her help; for he knew that she 
Wits very poor. With his half-crown in his hand, 



ECHOES FROM THE TABERNACLE PULPIT 233 

he knocked at the door; but she did not answer. 
He concluded she was not at home, and went his 
way. A little after he met her at the church, and 
told her that he had remembered her need: "I 
called at your house, and knocked several times, 
and I suppose you were not at home, for I had no 
answer." "At what hour did you call, sir?" "It 
was about noon." "Oh, dear," she said, "I heard 
you, sir, and I am so sorry I did not answer; but 
I thought it was the man calling for the rent." 
Many a poor woman knows what this meant. 
Now, it is my desire to be heard, and therefore I 
want to say that I am not calling for the rent; 
indeed, it is not the object of this book to ask 
anything of you, but to tell you that salvation is 
all of grace, which means, free-, #r?ti~ (or noth- 
ing. 

Oftentimes, when we are anxious to win at- 
tention, our hearer thinks, "Ah! now I am going 
to be told my duty. It is the man calling for that 
which is due to God, and I am sure I have nothing 
wherewith to pay. I will not be at home." No, 
this book does not come to make a demand upon 
you, but to bring you something. We are not 
going to talk about law, and duty, and punishment, 
but about love, and goodness, and forgiveness, and 
mercy, and eternal life. Do not, therefore, act as 
if you were not at home; do not turn a deaf ear, 
or a careless heart. I am asking nothing of you 
in the name of God or man. It is not my intent 
to make any requirement at your hands; but I 



234 SPURGEON 

come, in God's name, to bring you a free gift, 
which it shall be to your present and eternal joy 
to receive. Open the door, and let my pleadings 
enter. "Come now, and let us reason together." 
The Lord himself invites you to a conference con- 
cerning your immediate and endless happiness, and 
He would not have done this if He did not mean 
well toward you. Do not refuse the Lord Jesus 
who knocks at your door; for He knocks with a 
hand which was nailed to the tree for such as you 
are. Since His only and sole object is your good, 
incline your ear and come to Him. Hearken dili- 
gently, and let the good word sink into your soul. 
It may be that the hour is come in which you shall 
enter upon that new life which is the beginning of 
heaven. Faith cometh by hearing, and reading 
is a sort of hearing; faith may come to you while 
you are reading this book. Why not ? O blessed 
Spirit of all grace, make it so! 

THE JOY OF CONSCIOUS DEPENDENCE ON GOD 

If I were asked what is the sweetest frame 
within the whole compass of human feeling, I 
should not speak of a sense of power in prayer, or 
abundant revelation, or rapturous joys, or con- 
quest of evil spirits; but I should mention as the 
most exquisite delight of my being, a condition of 
conscious dependence upon God. It has been 
often associated with great pain and humiliation of 
spirit, but it is inexpressibly delightful to lie pas- 
sive in the hand of love, to die into the life of 



ECHOES FROM THE TABERNACLE PULPIT 235 

Christ. It is deep joy to feel that you do not 
know, but your heavenly Father knows; that you 
cannot speak, but "we have an Advocate;" that 
you can scarcely lift a hand, but that He worketh 
all your works in you. The entire submission of 
our soul to our Lord, the full content of the heart 
with God's will and way, the sure reliance of the 
mind upon the heavenly presence and power — 
this is the nearest approach to heaven that I know; 
and it is better than rapture, for one can abide in 
it without strain or reaction. 

" Oh. to be nothing, nothing, 
Only to lie at His feet." 

It is not so sublime a feeling as soaring aloft on 
the wings of eagles; but for sweetness — deep, mys- 
terious, indescribale — it bears the palm. It is a 
blessedness which can bear to be thought of, a joy 
which never seems to be a stolen one ; for surely 
a poor, frail child has an unquestioned right to 
depend upon God, a right to be nothing in the 
presence of the All-supporting One. I love to 
preach in such a mood, not as though I was about 
to preach at all, but hoping that the Holy Spirit 
would speak in me. 

BELIEVING DOES NOT COME BY TRYING 

We are not strangers to the cry — 

" Oh, that I could believe, 
Then all would easy be; 
I would, but cannot; Lord, relieve, 
My help must come from Thee." 

Many remain in the dark for years because they 



236 SPURGEON 

have no power, as they say, to do that which is 
the giving up of all power and reposing in the 
power of another, even the Lord Jesus. Indeed, 
it is a very curious thing, this whole matter of 
believing; for people do not get much help by try- 
ing to believe. Believing does not come by trying. 
If a person were to make a statement of something 
that happened this day, I should not tell him that 
I would try to believe him. If I believed in the 
truthfulness of the man who told the incident to 
me and said that he saw it, I should accept the 
statement at once. If I did not think him a true 
man, I should, of course, disbelieve him; but there 
would be no trying in the matter. Now, when 
God declares that there is salvation in Christ 
Jesus, I must either believe Him at once, or make 
Him a liar. Surely you will not hesitate as to 
which is the right path in this case. The witness 
of God must be true, and we are bound at once to 
believe in Jesus. 

But possibly you have been trying to believe too 
much. Now do not aim at great things. Be satis- 
fied to have a faith that can hold in its hand this 
one truth: "While we were yet without strength, 
in due time Christ died for the ungodly." He laid 
down His life for men while as yet they were not 
believing in Him, nor were able to believe in Him. 
He died for men, not as believers, but as sinners. 
He came to make these sinners into believers and 
saints; but when He died for them He viewed them 
as utterly without strength. If you hold to the 



ECHOES FROM THE TABERNACLE PULPIT 237 

truth that Christ died for the ungodly, and believe 
it, your faith will save you, and you may go in 
peace. If you will trust your soul with Jesus, who 
died for the ungodly, even though you cannot be- 
lieve all things, nor move mountains, nor do any 
other wonderful works, yet you are saved. It is 
not great faith, but true faith, that saves; and the 
salvation lies not in the faith, but in the Christ in 
whom faith trusts. Faith as a grain of mustard 
seed, will bring salvation. It is not the measure of 
faith, but the sincerity of faith, which is the point 
to be considered. Surely a man can believe what 
he knows to be true; and as you know Jesus to be 
true, you, my friend, can believe in Him. 

The cross, which is the object of faith, is also s 
by the power of the Holy Spirit, the cause of it. 
Sit down and watch the dying Savior till faith 
springs up spontaneously in your heart. There is 
no place like Calvary for creating confidence. The 
air of that sacred hill brings health to trembling 
faith. Many a watcher there has said: 

' While I view thee, wounded, grieving, 

Breathless on the cursed tree, 
Lord, I feel my heart believing 
That thou suffer'dst thus for me." 

NONE BUT GOD CAN FORGIVE 

It is quite impossible for any person to forgive 
offenses which have not been committed against 
himself. A person has greatly injured you; you 
can forgive him, and I hope you will; but no third 
person can forgive him apart from you. If the 

15 



238 SPURGEON 

wrong is done to you, the pardon must come from 
you. If we have sinned against God, it is in God's 
power to forgive; for the sin is against himself. 
That is why David says, in the fifty-first Psalm: 
"Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and done 
this evil in Thy sight;" for then God, against whom 
the offense is committed, can put the offense away. 
That which we owe to God, our great Creator can 
remit, if so it pleases Him; and if He remits it, it 
is remitted. None but the great God, against 
whom we have committed the sin, can blot out 
that sin; let us, therefore, see that we go to Him 
and seek mercy at His hands. Do not let us be 
led aside by priests, who would have us confess to 
them; they have no warrant in the Word of God 
for their pretensions. But even if they were or- 
dained to pronounce absolution in God's name, it 
must still be better to go ourselves to the great 
Lord through Jesus Christ, the Mediator, and seek 
and find pardon at His hands; since we are sure 
that this is the right way. Proxy religion involves 
too great a risk: you had better see to your soul's 
matters yourself, and leave them in no man's 
hands. 

Only God can justify the ungodly; but He can 
do it to perfection. He casts our sins behind His 
back, He blots them out, He says that though they 
be sought for, they shall not be found. With no 
other reason for it but His own infinite goodness, 
He has prepared a glorious way by which He can 
make scarlet sins as white as snow, and remove 



ECHOES FROM THE TABERNACLE PULPIT 239 

our transgressions from us as far as the east is 
from the west. He says, "I will not remember 
your sins." He goes the length of making an end 
of sin. One of old called out in amazement: 
"Who is a God like unto Thee, that pardoneth in- 
iquity, and passeth by the transgression of the 
remnant of His heritage ? He retaineth not His 
anger forever, because He delighteth in mercy." 

HUSH THY TRUMP, O WAR 

All swords that have ever flashed from scabbards 
have not aided Christ a single grain. Mohamme- 
dans' religion might be sustained by cimeters, but 
Christians' religion must be sustained by love. 
The great crime of war can never promote the re- 
ligion of peace. The battle, and the garment 
roiled in blood, are not a fitting prelude to "peace 
on earth; good will to men." And I do firmly hold 
that the slaughter of men, that bayonets, and 
swords, and guns, have never yet been, and never 
can be, promoters of the gospel. The gospel will 
proceed without them, but never through them. 
"Not by might." Now don't be befooled again, if 
you hear of the English conquering in China; don't 
go down on your knees and thank God for it, and 
say it's such a heavenly thing for the spread of 
the gospel — it just is not. Experience teaches you 
that; and if you look upon the map you will find I 
have stated the truth, that where our arms have 
been victorious, the gospel has been hindered 
rather than not; so that where South Sea Island- 



240 SPURGEON 

ers have bowed their knees and cast their idols to 
the bats, British Hindoos have kept their idols; 
and where Bechuanas and Bushmen have turned 
unto the Lord, British Caffirs have not been con- 
verted; not perhaps because they were British, 
but because the very fact of the missionary being 
a Briton, put him above them, and weakened their 
influence. Hush thy trump, O war; put away 
thy gaudy trappings and thy bloodstained drapery; 
if thou thinkest that the cannon with the cross 
upon it is really sanctified, and if thou imaginest 
that thy banner hath become holy, thou dreamest 
of a lie. God wanteth not thee to help his cause. 
"It is not by armies, nor by power, but by my 
Spirit, saith the Lord." 

TRUTH TOUCHES THE SPRINGS OF ACTION 

Faith is chosen again, because it touches the 
springs of action. Even in common things faith 
of a certain sort lies at the root of all. I wonder 
whether I shall be wrong if I say that we never do 
anything except through faith of some sort. If I 
walk across my study it is because I believe my 
legs will carry me. A man eats because he be- 
lieves in the necessity of food; he goes to business 
because he believes in the value of money; he 
accepts a check because he believes that the 
bank will honor it. Columbus discovered America 
because he believed that there was another conti- 
nent beyond the ocean; and the Pilgrim Fathers 
colonized it because they believed that God would 



ECHOES FROM THE TABERNACLE PULPIT 24 1 

be with them on those rocky shores. Most grand 
deeds have been born of faith; for good or for evil, 
faith works wonders by the man in whom it dwells. 
Faith in its natural form is an all-prevailing force, 
which enters into all manner of human actions. 
Possibly he who derides faith in God is the man 
who, in an evil form, has the most of faith; indeed, 
he usually falls into a credulity which would be 
ridiculous, if it were not disgraceful. 

BELIEVE YOUR OWN DOCTRINE 

So pray and so preach that if there are no con- 
versions you will be astonished, amazed, and bro- 
ken-hearted. Look for the salvation of your 
hearers as much as the angel who will sound the 
last trump will look for the waking of the dead. 
Believe your own doctrine! Believe your own 
Savior! Believe in the Holy Ghost who dwells in 
you! For thus shall you see your heart's desire, 
and God shall be glorified. 

LABELED " UNGODLY !" 

If God justifieth the ungodly, then, dear friend, he 
can justify you. Is not that the very kind of per- 
son that you are ? If you are unconverted at this 
moment, it is a very proper description of you: 
you have lived without God, you have been the 
reverse of godly; in one word, you have been and 
are ungodly. Perhaps you have not even attended 
a place of worship on the Sabbath, but have lived 
in disregard of God's day, and house, and Word 



242 SPURGEON 

— this proves you to have been ungodly. Sadder 
still, it may be you have even tried to doubt God's 
existence, and have gone the length of saying that 
you did so. You have lived on this fair earth, 
which is full of the tokens of God's presence, and 
all the while you have shut your eyes to the clear 
evidences of His power and Godhead. You have 
lived as if there were no God. Indeed, you would 
have been very pleased if you could have demon- 
strated to yourself to a certainty that there was 
no God whatever. Possibly you have lived a great 
many years in this way, so that you are now pretty 
well settled in your ways, and yet God is not in 
any of them. If you were labeled ungodly it 
would as well describe you as if the sea were to be 
labded salt water. Would it not ? 

CHRIST SHALL BE FOREVER PRAISED 

Supposing the innumerable company of the re- 
deemed could perish, and their immortality were 
swallowed up in death, yet, even then, daily Christ 
would be praised! If all of us had departed from 
the boundless sphere of being — look up yonder! 
See yon starry host ; see the mighty cohorts of 
cherubs and seraphs? Let men begone and they 
shall praise Him; let the troops of the glorified 
cease their notes, and let no sweet melodies ever 
come from the lips of sainted men and women, yet 
the chariots of God are twenty thousand, even 
many thousands of angels, who always in their 
motions chant His praise. There is an orchestra 



ECHOES FROM THE TABERNACLE PULPIT 243 

on high, the music of which shall never cease, even 
were mortals extinct and all the human race swept 
from existence. Again, if angels were departed, 
still daily would He be praised; for, are there not 
worlds on worlds, and suns on suns, and systems 
on systems, that could forever sing his praise ? Yes ! 
The ocean — that house of storms — would howl out 
his glories; the winds would swell the notes of his 
praise with their ceaseless gales; the thunders 
would roll like drums in the march of the God of 
armies; the illimitable void of ether would become 
vocal with song; and space itself would burst 
forth into one universal chorus — Hallelujah! Halle- 
lujah! Hallelujah! Still the Lord God omnipotent 
reigneth ! 

THE FUNERAL MARCH OF THE SOUL 

Alas! for thee, that thy pulse should beat a 
march to hell. Alas! that yonder clock, like the 
muffled drum, should be the music of the funeral 
march of thy soul. Alas! alas! that thou shouldst 
fold thine arms in pleasure, when the knife is at 
thy heart. Alas ! alas ! for thee, that thou shouldst 
sing, and make merriment, when the rope is about 
thy neck, and the drop is tottering under thee ! 
Alas ! for thee, that thou shouldst go thy way, and 
live merrily and happily and yet be lost! Thou 
remindest me of the silly moth that dances round 
about the flame, singeing itself for a while, and 
then at last plunging to its death. Such art thou ! 
Young woman, with thy butterfly clothing, thou 



244 SPURGEON 

art leaping round the flame that shall destroy thee! 
Young man, light and frothy in thy conversation, 
gay in thy life, thou art dancing to hell; thou art 
singing thy way to damnation, and promenading 
the road to destruction. Alas! alas! that ye should 
be spinning your own winding-sheets; that ye 
should every day by your sins be building your 
own gallows; that by your transgressions ye should 
be digging your own graves, and working hard to 
pile the fagots for your own eternal burning. Oh ! 
that ye were wise, that ye understood this, that 
ye would consider your latter end. Oh! that ye 
would flee from the wrath to come! 

god's highest glory 

Salvation is God's highest glory. He is glorified 
in every dewdrop that twinkles to the morning 
sun. He is magnified in every wood flower that 
blossoms in the copse, although it live to blush 
unseen, and waste its sweetness in the forest air. 
God is glorified in every bird that warbles on the 
spray; in every lamb that skips the mead. Do 
not the fishes in the sea praise Him ? From the tiny 
minnow to the huge leviathan, do not all creatures 
that swim the water bless and praise his name? 
Do not all created things extol Him ? Is there aught 
beneath the sky, save man, that does not glorify 
God? Do not the stars exalt Him, when they write 
his name upon the azure of heaven in their golden 
letters? Do not the lightnings adore Him when 
they flash his brightness in arrows of light, pierc- 



ECHOES FROM THE TABERNACLE PULPIT 24$ 

ing the midnight darkness? Do not thunders extol 
him when they roll like drums in the march of the 
God of armies ? Do not all things exalt Him, from 
the least even to the greatest ? But sing, sing, O 
Universe, till thou hast exhausted thyself, thou 
canst not afford a song so sweet as the song of 
Incarnation. Though creation may be a majestic 
organ of praise, it cannot reach the compass of 
the golden canticle — Incarnation ! There is more 
in that than in creation, more melody in Jesus in 
the manger, than there is in worlds on worlds roll- 
ing their grandeur round the throne of the Most 
High. 

WHAT IS IT TO BELIEVE IN HIM 

What is it to believe in Him? It is not merely to 
say, "He is God and the Savior," but to trust Him 
wholly and entirely, and take Him for all your sal- 
vation from this time forth and forever — youi 
Lord, your Master, your all. If you will have 
Jesus, He has you already. If you believe on Him, 
I tell you you cannot go to hell; for that were to 
make the sacrifice of Christ of none effect. It 
cannot be that a sacrifice should be accepted, and 
yet the soul should die for whom that sacrifice has 
been received. If the believing soul could be con- 
demned, then why a sacrifice ? If Jesus died in my 
stead, why should I die also ? Every believer can 
claim that the sacrifice was actually made for him: 
by faith he has laid his hands on it, and made it 
his own, and therefore he may rest assured that 



246 SPURGEON 

he can never perish. The Lord would not receive 
this offering on our behalf, and then condemn us 
to die. The Lord cannot read our pardon written 
in the blood of His own Son, and then smite us. 
That were impossible. Oh, that you may have 
grace given you at once to look away to Jesus and 
to begin at the beginning, even at Jesus, who is 
the fountain-head of mercy to guilty man! 

PARDON MUST BE FOR THE GUILTY 

If you, dear friend, feel that you are spiritually 
sick, the Physician has come into the world for 
you. If you are altogether undone by reason of 
your sin, you are the very person aimed at in the 
plan of salvation. I say that the Lord of love had 
just such as you are in his eye when He arranged 
the system of grace. Suppose a man of generous 
spirit were to resolve to forgive all those who were 
indebted to him; it is clear that this can only 
apply to those really in his debt. One person 
owes him a thousand pounds; another owes him 
fifty pounds ; each one has but to have his bill re- 
ceipted and the liability is wiped out. But the 
most generous person cannot forgive the debts of 
those who do not owe him anything. It is out of 
the power of omnipotence to forgive where there 
is no sin. Pardon, therefore, cannot be for you 
who have no sin. Pardon must be for the guilty. 
Forgiveness must be for the sinful. It were absurd 
to talk of forgiving those who do not need forgive- 
ness — pardoning those who have never offended. 



ECHOES FROM THE TABERNACLE PULPIT 24/ 

Do you think that you must be lost because you 
are a sinner? This is the reason why you can be 
saved. Because you own yourself to be a sinner 
I would encourage you to believe that grace is 
ordained for such as you are. One of our hymn- 
writers even dared to say — - 

"A sinner is a sacred thing, 
The Holy Ghost hath made him so.** 

STRONG FAITH WTLL COME 

You will rise to strong faith in due time. This 
matured faith asks not for signs and tokens, but 
bravely believes. Look at the faith of the master 
mariner — I have often wondered at it. He looses 
his cable, he steams away from the land. For 
days, weeks, or even months, he never sees sail nor 
shore; yet on he goes day and night without fear, 
till one morning he finds himself exactly opposite 
to the desired haven toward which he has been 
steering. How has he found his way over the 
trackless deep ? He has trusted in his compass, his 
nautical almanac, his glass, and the heavenly 
bodies; and, obeying their guidance, without sight- 
ing land, he has steered so accurately that he has 
not to change a point to enter into port. It is a 
wonderful thing — that sailing or steaming without 
sight. Spiritually it is a blessed thing to leave 
altogether the shores of sight and feeling, and to 
say "Good-bye" to inward feelings, cheering prov- 
idences, signs, tokens, and so forth. It is glorious 
t$ be far out on the ocean of divine love, believing 



248 SPURGEON 

in God, and steering for heaven straight away by 
the direction of the Word of God. "Blessed are 
they that have not seen, and yet have believed;" 
to them shall be administered an abundant, en- 
trance at the last, and a safe voyage on the way. 
Will not my reader put his trust in God in Christ 
Jesus? There I rest with joyous confidence. 
Brother, come with me, and believe our Father 
and our Saviour. Come at once. 

NONE RIGHTEOUS 

"There is none righteous, no, not one." In any 
case I have no gospel to preach to the self-right- 
eous — no, not a word of it. Jesus Christ himself 
came not to call the righteous, and I am not going 
to do what He did not do. If I called you, you 
would not come, and, therefore, I will not call you 
under that character. No, I bid you rather look 
at that righteousness of yours till you see what a 
delusion it is. It is not half so substantial as a 
cobweb. Have done with it! Flee away from it! 
O sirs, the only persons that can need justification 
are those who are not in themselves just. They 
need that something should be done for them to 
make them just before the judgment-seat of God. 
Depend upon it, the Lord only does that which is 
needful. Infinite wisdom never attempts that 
which is unnecessary. Jesus never undertakes 
that which is superfluous. To make him just who 
is just is no work for God — that were a labor for a 
fool; but to make him just who is unjust — that is 



ECHOES FROM THE TABERNACLE PULPIT 249 

work for infinite love and mercy. To justify the 
ungodly — this is a miracle worthy of a God. And 
for certain it is so. 

GO ON IN THE NAME OF GOD 

No sermon is what it ought to be if faith be 
absent: as well say that a body is in health when 
life is extinct. It is admirable to see a man hum- 
bly conscious of weakness, and yet bravely confi- 
dent in the Lord's power to work through his in- 
firmity. We may glory at large when God is our 
glory. Attempting great things, we shall not over- 
do ourselves in the attempt; and expecting great 
things, we shall not be disappointed in our expec- 
tation. Nelson was asked whether a certain move- 
ment of his ships was not perilous, and he replied, 
"Perilous it may be, but in naval affairs nothing 
is impossible, and nothing is improbable." I make 
bold to assert that in the service of God nothing is 
impossible and nothing is improbable. Go on, in 
the name of God ; risk everything on His promise, 
and according to your faith shall it be done unto 
you. 

WHAT DOST THOU HERE 

Let me imagine a man entering heaven without 
a change of heart. He comes within the gates. 
He hears a sonnet. He starts ! It is to the praise 
of his enemy. He sees a throne, and on it sits 
one who is glorious; but it is his enemy. He 
walks streets of gold, but those streets belong to 



2 50 SPURGEON 

his enemy. He sees hosts of angels, but those 
hosts are the servants of his enemy. He is in an 
enemy's house; for he is at enmity with God. He 
could not join the song, for he would not know 
the tune. There he would stand, silent, motion- 
less, till Christ would say, with a voice louder than 
ten thousand thunders, "What dost thou here? 
Enemies at a marriage banquet ? Enemies in the 
children's house? Enemies in heaven? Get thee 
gone! 'Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire in 
hell!'" 

NO DESIRE BUT CHRIST 

It is the highest stage of manhood to have no 
wish, no thought, no desire, but Christ — to feel 
that to die were bliss, if it were for Christ — that 
to live in penury, and woe, and scorn, and con- 
tempt, and misery, were sweet for Christ — to feel 
that it matters nothing what becomes of one's self, 
so that our Master is but exalted — to feel that 
though, like a sere leaf, we are blown in the blast, 
we are quite careless whither we are going, so long 
as we feel that the Master's hand is guiding us 
according to his will; or, rather, to feel that though, 
like the diamond, we must be exercised with sharp 
tools, yet we care not how sharply we may be cut, 
so that we may be made fit brilliants to adorn his 
crown. 

IDLENESS 

I do think that one of the worst sins a man can 



ECHOES FROM THE TABERNACLE PULPIT 25 1 

be guilty of in this world is to be idle. I can 
almhst forgive a drunkard, but a lazy man I do 
think there is very little pardon for. I think a 
man who is idle has as good a reason to be a peni- 
tent before God as David had when he was an 
adulterer, for the most abominable thing in the 
world is for a man to let the grass grow up to his 
ankles and do nothing. God never sent a man 
into the world to be idle. And there are some 
who make a tolerably fair profession, but who do 
nothing from one year's end to the other. 

MEN HUG THEIR VICES 

According to ^Esop, an old woman found an 
empty jar which had lately been full of prime old 
wine, and which still retained the fragrant smell 
of its former contents. She greedily placed it 
several times to her nose, and drawing it back- 
wards and forwards said, "Oh, most delicious! How 
nice must the wine itself have been, when it leaves 
behind in the very vessel which contained it so 
sweet a perfume!" 

Men often hug their vices when their power to 
enjoy them is gone. The memories of reveling 
and wantonness appear to be sweet to the ungod- 
ly in their old age. They sniff the empty bottles 
of their follies, and only wish they could again be 
drunken with them. Age cures not the evil heart, 
but exhibits in a ridiculous but deeply painful light 
the indelible perversity of human nature. 



252 SPURGEON 

HEAVEN IS BATHING IN SEAS OF BLISS 

The best enjoyments of Christ on earth are but 
as the dipping of our finger in water for the cooling 
of our thirst; but heaven is bathing in seas of 
bliss. Even so our love here is but one drop of 
the same substance as the waters of the ocean, 
but not comparable for magnitude or depth. Oh, 
how sweet it will be to be married to the Lord 
Jesus, and to enjoy forever, and without any in- 
terruption, the heavenly delights of His society ! 
Surely, if a glimpse of Him melteth our soul, the 
full fruition of Him will be enough to burn up with 
affection. It is well that we shall have more noble 
frames in heaven than we have here, otherwise we 
should die of love in the very land of life. 

SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS NATURAL 

Self-righteousness is natural to our fallen hu- 
manity. Hence it is the essence of all false relig- 
ions. Be they what they may, they all agree in 
seeking salvation by our own deeds. He who 
worships his idols will torture his body, will fast, 
will perform long pilgrimages, and do or endure 
anything in order to merit salvation. The Romish 
Church holds up continually before the eyes of its 
votaries the prize to be earned by self-denial, by 
penance, by prayers, or by sacraments, or by some 
other performances of man. Go where you may, 
the natural religion of fallen man is salvation by 
his own merits. An old divine has well said, 



ECHOES FROM THE TABERNACLE PULPIT 253 

every man is born a heretic upon this point, and 
he naturally gravitates toward this heresy in one 
form or another. Self-salvation, either by his per- 
sonal worthiness, or by his repentance, or by his 
resolves, is a hope ingrained in human nature, and 
very hard to remove. This foolishness is bound 
up in the heart of every child, and who shall get 
it out of him? 

TRIFLING WITH GREAT TRUTHS 

Here is the greatest discovery that was ever 
made, the most wonderful piece of knowledge that 
ever was revealed, and yet you do not think it 
worth a thought. You come now and then to 
hear a sermon, but you hear without heart; you 
read the Scriptures occasionally, but you do not 
search them as for hid treasure. It is not your 
first object in life thoroughly to understand and 
heartily to receive the gospel which God has pro- 
claimed; yet such ought to be the case. What, 
my friend, does your indifference say that the 
grace of God is of no great value in your esteem? 
You do not think it worth the trouble of prayer, 
of Bible-reading, and attention. The death of 
Christ is nothing to you — a very beautiful fact, no 
doubt ; you know the story well, but you do not 
care enough about it to wish to be a partaker in 
its benefits. His blood may have power to cleanse 
from sin, but you do not want remission; His death 
may be the life of men, but you do not long to 

live by Him. To be saved by the atoning blood 
itj 



2 54 SPURGEOX 

does not strike you as being half so important as 
to carry on your business at a profit and acquire a 
fortune for your family. By thus trifling with 
these precious things you do, as far as you can, 
frustrate the grace of God and make Christ to die 
in vain. 

CHRIST LONGING FOR THE CROSS 

Christ longed for the cross, because He looked 
for it as the goal of all His exertions. He could 
never say, "It is finished," on His throne: but on 
His cross he did cry it. He preferred the suffering 
of Calvary to the honors of the multitude who 
crowded round about Him; for, preach as He might, 
and bless them as He might, and heal them as He 
might, still was His work undone. He was strait- 
ened; He had a baptism to be baptized with, and 
how was He straitened till it was accomplished. 
"But," He said, "now I pant for my cross, for it 
is the topstone of my labor. I long for my suffer- 
ings, because they shall be the completion of my 
great work of grace." It is the end that bringeth 
the honor; it is the victory that crowneth the 
warrior rather than the battle. And so Christ 
longed for this, His death, that He might see the 
completion of His labor. 

EXCELSIOR 

The artist, when he paints, knows right well 
that he shall not be able to excel Apelles; but that 
does not discourage him; he uses his brush with 



ECHOES FROM THE TABERNACLE PULPIT 255 

all the greater pains, that he may at least in some 
humble measure resemble the great master. So 
the sculptor, though persuaded that he will not 
rival Praxiteles, will hew out the marble still, and 
seek to be as near the model as possible. Thus so 
the Christian man, though he feels he never can 
mount to the heights of complete excellence and 
perceives that he never can on earth become the 
exact image of Christ, still holds it up before him, 
and measures his own deficiencies by the distance 
between himself and Jesus. This will he do — for- 
getting all he has attained, he will press forward, 
crying, Excelsior! going upwards still, desiring to 
be conformed more and more to the image of 
Christ Jesus. 

ELDER FLOWERS AT VARALLO 

One of our party greatly needed some elder- 
flower water for her face, upon which the sun was 
working great mischief. It was in the Italian 
town of Varallo, and not a word of Italian did I 
know. I entered a chemist's shop and surveyed 
his drawers and bottles, but the result was nil. 
Bright thought, I would go down by the river, and 
walk until I could gather a bunch of elder-flowers, 
for the tree was then in bloom. Happily thrs 
search was successful: the flowers were exhibited 
to the druggist, the extract was procured. 

SATAN IS A FOWLER 

Satan is a fowler; he has been so and is so 



2\6 SPURGEON 

still; and if he does not now attack us as the roar- 
ing lion, roaring against us in persecution, he at- 
tacks us as the adder, creeping silently along the 
path, endeavoring to bite our heel with his poi- 
soned fangs, and weaken the power of grace and 
ruin the life of godliness within us. 

THE DEVIL AS A RESPECTABLE GENTLEMAN 

If the devil comes to my door with his horns 
visible, I will never let him in; but if he comes 
with his hat on as a respectable gentleman, he is 
at once admitted. The metaphor may be very 
quaint, but it is quite true. Many a man has 
taken in an evil thing, because it has been var- 
nished and glossed over, and not apparently an 
evil; and he has thought in his heart, there is not 
much harm in it; so he has let in the little thing, 
and it has been like the breaking forth of water — 
the first drop has brought after it a torrent. The 
beginning has been but the beginning of a fearful 
end. 

IF WE COULD BUT SEE THINGS AS THEY ARE 

If we could see things as they are — if we were 
not deceived by the masquerade of this poor life — 
if we were not so easily taken in by the masks and 
dresses of those who act in this great drama, be it 
comedy or tragedy — if we could but see what the 
men are behind the scenes, penetrate their hearts, 
watch the inner motions, and discern their secret 
feelings, we should find \>\\t few who could bear 
the name of "blessed." 















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